The January 13-19 Economist has a review of (and my first encounter with) Philippe Legrain‘s book Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them. The title and the review make the book sound a bit wishy-washy, but a review in the Guardian, reprinted on Legrain’s site makes it sound much better.
The central thrust is that immigration is economically beneficial. Fluid migration is as dynamic as every other form of free trade. “If you believe that the world is an unequal place and that the rich should do more to help the poor,” he writes, “then freer international migration should be the next front in the battle for global economic justice.”
Ironically, the book appears to not yet be available in the U.S. Amazon Canada will have it January 30.
Looks like we need a completely “open” government. Open from top to bottom with Open Borders, Open Citizenship and so on to supplement our Open Source and Open Content.
Hi there
Thanks for your post. The review of Immigrants in the Guardian is much more accurate than the rather grudging one in the Economist. For a third view, see the Financial Times review: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b568f98e-a43c-11db-bec4-0000779e2340.html
Thanks
Philippe
[…] Via a comment from author Philippe Legrain, a positive Financial Times review (copy) of his book Immigratns: Your Country Needs Them. I want to comment on two short excerpts: Workers raise their own – and the world’s – income levels by moving from a low-productivity job in a poor country to more productive employment in a rich one. […]