Immigration
Discover how immigration has helped build America, from the Founding era to today’s debates over freedom, opportunity, and reform.
What powers new businesses, fills crucial jobs, and breathes fresh ideas into economies? Immigration does.
Most Americans are immigrants or descended from immigrants who sought opportunity and freedom on our shores. They and their children worked hard, assimilated, and added to our nation’s prosperity.
Immigrants today continue to become Americans and, in the process, make the United States a wealthier, freer, and safer country. However, our current immigration system excludes most peaceful and healthy immigrants. Congress should look to America’s past for inspiration to expand and deregulate legal immigration.
How to Get Started
Clicking "Start Course" will prompt you to create a quick, free account so you can save your progress and earn your certificate.
Quick Account Setup
Create your free account in under 30 seconds. You just need to quickly verify your email.
Start Learning
Dive straight into expert-led video lessons at your own pace, anytime, anywhere.
Track Your Progress
Your progress saves automatically. Pick up right where you left off.
Chapter One
America’s traditional immigration policy permitted freedom of movement.
Chapter Two
The Founders’ immigration policy was possibly the most successful economic policy ever adopted in American history.
Free immigration was widely seen as a fundamental American tradition.
With the incredible economic success of free immigration and the strong tradition in favor of it, immigration restrictionism depended primarily on hatred of specific nationalities.
Chapter Three
Peaceful people should be free to cross political borders legally.
In fact, US law severely restricts the legal movement, residence, and employment of non-US citizens.
A libertarian policy would restore to the immigration system the presumption of freedom to move and associate.
What You’ll Discover:
This Cato Course helps learners understand how immigration has shaped American identity, economy, and law. You’ll investigate the founders’ assumptions about movement, the era of largely free immigration, why restrictions arose, and the real-world consequences of limiting movement.
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:
Describe the historical evolution of U.S. immigration policy from open movement to restriction;
Explain how freer movement affects opportunity, labor markets, and innovation;
Evaluate common arguments for immigration restrictions using evidence and principles of individual liberty; and
Identify practical policy approaches that expand orderly legal migration while addressing real concerns.
In under an hour, you’ll gain a principled, evidence-grounded understanding of American immigration, how it evolved, why restrictions arose, and what realistic reforms could expand legal movement and improve outcomes.
Who this course is for:
Students and Young Professionals interested in criminal justice and libertarian thought.
Liberty-Minded Activists looking for intellectual ammunition for advocacy.
Lifelong Learners/Cato Partners engaging more deeply with Cato’s resources.
Requirements
No background is needed. This Cato course is for anyone eager to dive into the US immigration system.
Course FAQs
-
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you will have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like—across any and all devices you own.
-
This online course is available at no cost thanks to Cato Institute’s Partners who champion innovation, freedom, and prosperity.
-
The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course—you decide when you start and when you finish.
-
Yes! This course is designed for young minds, but it’s open to anyone eager to learn. Whether you are new to the topic or looking to sharpen your skills, you will find valuable insights here.
-
Everything you need is provided within the course, but having a notebook and an open mind is always a plus!