As an Arabic speaker and former resident of the UAE—I lived and worked there for five years, managing a large portfolio of hotel investments owned by the sovereign wealth fund of Dubai—I have a particular context that Caplan does not, having only passed through on his way to India.

With that context, I do not intend to evaluate the respective merits of either side of the libertarian broader debates on restricted versus unrestricted immigration, nor do I intend to dissect Caplan’s entire position on this debate. My aim is to point out the factual inaccuracies in Caplan’s latest article and suggest that irrational entrenchment on one side of an argument often comes with desperate leaps in judgment, leading to sloppy analysis.