There was no welfare, no ideology of victimhood, no inferiority complex about our heritage, and no attack on English. Immigrants became English-speakers because they wanted to become Americans. After he emigrated to America, Mises wrote and spoke English. Today, our economy is disabled, victimology is rampant, welfare is abundant, and English is demeaned. In the New York City public schools, classes are held in 82 languages.
Leftists claim that group antagonisms can be cured with togetherness, but that's utopian nonsense.
Under present circumstances, as Chronicles editor Thomas Fleming points out, open borders would only subvert American liberty. Certainly businessmen should be able to hire foreign contract workers, as they could before the trade unions had their way, and we need to reexamine the idea of citizenship. Citizenship is a civil convention, not a right, yet we grant it automatically to anyone born here. Mises argued that private property would help solve the immigration question. Certainly we should seek to make our commercial districts private and therefore as safe and bum-free as malls, and private residential areas could be closed to anyone not invited or hired by the owners.