The case for more immigration

Philippe Legrain is a man on a mission. He believes that immigrants contribute to making a better, more prosperous world. This message needs to be delivered with gusto to the general public to dispel the myths and distortions perpetrated by nationalist politicians. Legrain’s latest book is written in this spirit. In a series of punchy chapters, he illustrates the diverse benefits that migrants bring to societies across the world. The economic chapters in this fast-moving book draw on individual stories, which are deftly interwoven with detailed analysis. The later chapters seek to rebut the standard set of cultural arguments often heard from both immigration sceptics and racist nationalists. Here he rebukes “liberals and progressives”—his core audience—for too often failing to engage with their opponents’ key arguments and makes a powerful case for an open society “defined by Mo Farah’s feats not Nigel Farage’s fears.”

It makes for an invigorating read but ultimately it fails to convince. Legrain offers the free market case for uncontrolled migration and open borders. He sees a simple binary choice for today’s world: neoliberal hyper-globalisation, or a closed nationalism. Like his former employer, the Economist, he cannot conceive of different types of globalisation that would manage and control migration and trade flows. Real wages have stagnated and insecurity in the labour market has grown. Liberals—as against neoliberals—and progressives have to address the labour market and social issues that arise from unequal globalisation (including large-scale, rapid immigration) and offer policy reforms to tackle them.

This is territory where Legrain doesn’t want to go. He is happy to accept the autonomous workings of the market. He writes approvingly of a world where West African migrants to Malta earn less than €3 an hour on building sites. Regulation, minimum wages, maximum working weeks and trade unions do not feature in his book. If Legrain’s free market fundamentalism is the only pro-immigration voice, we will continue to be on the back-foot in this debate with cultural conservatives and immigration sceptics.

Them and Us: How Immigrants and Locals Can Thrive Together

by Philippe Legrain (Oneworld, £20)