by Garrett Hardin

About the author: Garrett Hardin is professor emeritus of human ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

As the 20th century draws to a close, uninvited immigration has become a problem worldwide. Migration from poor or troubled countries to rich and relatively peaceful nations was always an intermittent fact of life, but few governments have seen it as a ‘problem’. Most have just tried to hold the would-be immigrants at arm’s length. Of the powerful nations, the newest one, the United States, is somewhat confused in its policy. . . .

The troubles of the present are rooted in the past. We need to understand how the compromises worked out early in the century produced difficulties in later years. Alone among the nations of the world, America boasts a Statue...