Claims

Factual · Philosophy, ethics and society

“There has never been a society that welcomed immigration for its own sake,” he said”

Nassim Taleb, speaking at Ron Paul Institute meeting · 24 September 2025 · Black Swan author Nassim Taleb says your city's new bike lane is the reason the economy sucks (Fortune)

There has never been a society that welcomed immigration for its own sake.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

What would count as true or false

This is a universal historical negative. True: historical and migration scholarship indicates that societies which welcomed immigrants always did so for instrumental reasons (labour, population, defence, settlement, economic growth, and so on), and no documented society welcomed immigration as a good in itself. Mostly false: there are recognised cases where welcoming immigrants was framed as a value or identity in itself (for example official ideologies of open asylum or 'nation of immigrants'), but scholars judge those cases to have been driven substantially by instrumental motives as well. False: historians document at least one clear case of a society that welcomed immigration explicitly and mainly for its own sake. Mixed: scholars are genuinely divided on whether such cases exist.

Evidence

1. The folly of mass immigration openDemocracy · 30 April 2003

   “Virtually no society anywhere in the world throughout history has ever wanted to attract immigration for its own sake”

2. The folly of mass immigration openDemocracy · 30 April 2003

   “In a relatively empty land, such as Australia, Canada or the US, the desire to boost the population via mass immigration can make sense.”

3. Sample text for Library of Congress control number 2001036870 Library of Congress catalog (publisher's sample text; the publisher is not named on the page) · 29 September 2024

   “Yet a rich variety of other ideological commitments also have influenced national immigration policy, including official decisions to advance expansive opportunities for alien admissions at times of popular animus toward aliens.”

4. Sample text for Library of Congress control number 2001036870 Library of Congress catalog (publisher's sample text; the publisher is not named on the page) · 29 September 2024

   “Although the Republican party was sometimes prone to anti-immigrant nationalism, it also was attentive to pro-immigration constituents and eager to prod national economic development through immigrant labor.”

5. Sample text for Library of Congress control number 2001036870 Library of Congress catalog sample (book publisher and author not named on page)

   “At a time of low immigration, plentiful land, and labor scarcity, the nation's early political leaders established easy naturalization for European immigrants while eschewing federal controls over their admission.”

6. Sample text for Library of Congress control number 2001036870 Library of Congress catalog sample (book publisher and author not named on page)

   “Although the Republican party was sometimes prone to anti-immigrant nationalism, it also was attentive to pro-immigration constituents and eager to prod national economic development through immigrant labor.”

7. The folly of mass immigration openDemocracy · 30 April 2003

   “Virtually no society anywhere in the world throughout history has ever wanted to attract immigration for its own sake”

8. Sample text for Library of Congress control number 2001036870 Library of Congress catalog sample (book publisher and author not named on page)

   “For Americans who have traditionally disagreed over whether theirs is truly "a nation of immigrants," to borrow the memorable phrase of John F. Kennedy (or more precisely, that of his ghostwriter), these regulatory decisions have been especially difficult.”

9. Ungarn-Aufstand 1956: Die Massenflucht nach Österreich ORF (orf.at) · 4 November 2026

   “Für Österreich sei die Massenflucht elf Jahre nach Ende der Nazi-Herrschaft eine Chance gewesen, international sein Ansehen zu steigern, meinte kürzlich die Historikerin Barbara Stelzl-Marx im Gespräch mit ORF Steiermark.”

10. Ungarn-Aufstand 1956: Die Massenflucht nach Österreich ORF (orf.at) · 4 November 2026

    “Auch mit dem Entschluss, allen Ungarn-Flüchtlingen umstandslos Asyl zu gewähren, traf Österreich eine mutige Entscheidung. Die Angst vor militärischen Grenzzwischenfällen war extrem groß.”

11. Manifesto Issued by Empress Catherine II of Russia (July 22, 1763) German History in Documents and Images (GHDI, German Historical Institute) · 22 July 1763

    “We perceive, among other things, that a considerable number of regions are still uncultivated which could easily and advantageously be made available for productive use of population and settlement.”

Reasoning

The only source stating the claim directly is a 2003 opinion piece. It says almost the same thing, and the quoted excerpts cite no scholarship (E1, E2). A scholarly text on US immigration policy says "ideological commitments", not only instrumental ones, shaped expansive admissions, and it mentions the disputed "nation of immigrants" self-image (E3, E8). The same text, however, links open admissions to labour scarcity and economic development (E4, E5), while the Austrian and Russian cases point to reputational and settlement motives (E9, E11). Taken together, this does not show either that no society ever welcomed immigration for its own sake, or that scholars recognise cases matching any specific verdict category. So the claim cannot be settled on this evidence.

Cite this claim

Nassim Taleb, “There has never been a society that welcomed immigration for its own sake.” (said 24 September 2025). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_713ae0d072f9, method 0.1.0+28da144b. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_713ae0d072f9