Immigrants

Migration is one of humanity’s oldest and most transformative actions—what J.K. Galbraith called “the oldest action against poverty.” Philippe Legrain argues that in the modern era, it remains a powerful engine of prosperity, creativity, and social renewal. His central claim is that open, well‑regulated migration benefits both movers and stayers: migrants lift themselves from poverty, enrich host societies, and revitalize economies, while restrictive border regimes produce waste, death, and fear. To understand this argument, you must distinguish rhetoric from evidence—the recurring theme of the book.

Why the debate is so polarized

You live in a world where immigration dominates headlines. Fears of job loss, welfare strain, and identity erosion drive emotional reactions—from border vigilantes in Arizona to tabloid outrage in London. Legrain begins by diagnosing this feverish tone and urging an evidence‑based conversation. He shows that alarmist bestsellers predicting national collapse (Pat Buchanan, Peter Brimelow) often suppress basic economic facts: migrants expand demand, pay taxes, and tend to complement rather than displace native workers.

A global frame of reference

Migration isn’t only an American story. One in five Canadians is foreign‑born, nearly one in four Australians, and one in ten Europeans. London speaks more than 300 languages and Sydney’s population is almost a quarter foreign‑born. These figures make migration a structural feature of globalization, not an anomaly. From 19th‑century transatlantic flows to postwar guest‑worker programmes and today’s mobility from South to North, Legrain traces path‑dependent patterns shaped by colonial ties, language, and labour demand. Migration evolves with technology and opportunity—steamships once enabled millions of Europeans to move, while modern education markets push skilled people to cosmopolitan hubs.

The moral and economic case

At its heart, migration is both a moral and economic question. Morally, restricting movement traps people in poverty based on birthplace. Economically, allowing workers from poor countries to use rich‑country capital multiplies global output. Studies cited by Legrain (Bob Hamilton, John Whalley, Jonathon Moses, Bjørn Letnes) show potential gains that dwarf trade liberalization. Dani Rodrik even estimates that a 3 percent increase in rich‑country labour inflow could generate over $200 billion annually for poor workers. These numbers anchor the book’s call for openness not as utopian idealism but as pragmatic common sense.

Borders and their human costs

You might assume walls work; Legrain proves otherwise. Border fortifications from Spain’s Ceuta fences to America’s Operation Hold the Line displace crossings rather than stop them, enriching smugglers and raising death tolls. When enforcement fails, migrants risk deserts and seas; when it succeeds, they face exploitation in illegal labor markets. As Nigel Harris notes, “The slaughter of some and the disablement of others is not an act of nature—it is a regime constructed by governments.” Legrain uses such evidence to argue that humane, legal channels outperform repression, both morally and practically.

Rethinking nationhood and cohesion

Fears of identity loss rest on myths of ethnic purity. Nations like Britain and France are mixtures; authenticity itself is plural. Legrain distinguishes civic from ethnic conceptions of nationhood—the first rooted in shared institutions and rights, the second in ancestry. Civic nations can absorb diversity without breaking apart. Canada’s multiculturalism and Toronto’s motto “Diversity Our Strength” embody this inclusive model. In contrast, ethnic definitions invite exclusion and resentment, fueling Huntington‑style anxieties about “two nations” within the U.S., which data prove unfounded.

What diversity delivers

When cultures meet, creativity blooms. Research by Ottaviano & Peri finds higher productivity and wages in diverse U.S. cities. Legrain extends this to innovation—Silicon Valley thrives because global talent converges: Sergey Brin, Andy Grove, Jerry Yang, and immigrant‑founded networks like TiE and Digital Diaspora. Diversity, he explains, expands the pool of ideas and heuristics; it’s the intellectual equivalent of genetic recombination. Cities benefit not just economically but culturally—ethnic restaurants, music scenes, and cosmopolitan energy increase the “buzz” that attracts talent.

Building workable policies

Legrain does not call for chaos. He advocates regulated openness: legal pathways, temporary‑worker schemes, and integration supports. Canada’s seasonal programme and proposed U.S. temporary‑visa system show that cooperation between sending and receiving countries makes mobility humane and orderly. Employer levies and refundable contributions can discourage overstays. Temporary migration, properly designed, lets rich societies fill labour gaps while sending countries gain remittances and skills.

The larger vision

Ultimately, migration forces you to decide what kind of global community you want. You can choose fear, walls, and wasted lives—or openness, evidence, and shared progress. Legrain’s message is that mobility, like trade, is an economic multiplier and moral necessity. Managed well, it renews societies, sustains welfare systems, and generates cultural richness. The challenge is not whether to open borders but how to do so intelligently. If humanity’s oldest action against poverty still works, our century’s task is to make it fair and functional for all.

You probably assume strict borders keep migration under control. Legrain’s investigations—from Spain’s fortified perimeters to U.S. desert patrols—show the opposite. Enforcement displaces routes, enriches smugglers, and multiplies suffering. Fences in Ceuta and Melilla, built at a cost of £200 million, have not stopped African migrants from vaulting wire, suffocating in trucks, or drowning at sea. Médecins Sans Frontières documents thousands of injuries every year.

America’s desert deterrence

Operations Hold the Line and Gatekeeper redirected crossers from urban zones to lethal deserts. Border Patrol records over 450 deaths annually in the Arizona sector alone. The result is a grim market: smugglers now charge €3,000–€8,000 per passage, with warranties against arrest. Migrants incur debt and fall prey to exploitation—in sweatshops, kitchens, and farms. The system turns economic desperation into criminal opportunity.

A policy paradox

By attempting to seal rural borders, governments encourage permanent illegal settlement. People who might have circulated stay put out of fear. Legrain compares this to East Germany’s walls: effective only if guarded by minefields—politically unacceptable and morally abhorrent. The alternative is to design legal and humane entry routes that make movement visible and safer.

Constructive alternatives

Legrain supports legalisation and temporary permits. He points to Canada’s cooperative farm‑worker system and the proposed U.S. refund schemes that pay social‑security contributions back upon return. Such policies reduce deaths, cut smuggling profits, and respect public concerns about control. The insight is simple: migration thrives where opportunity exists; blocking it merely pushes it underground.

When you weigh costs and ethics, humane regulation turns out to be not only kinder but more effective. Walls breed tragedy, while managed openness saves lives and restores integrity to policy.

Legrain dismantles the myth that migrants steal jobs or drain welfare. Evidence from Israel’s mass Soviet immigration and European studies shows negligible long‑term unemployment effects. Migrants often complement rather than substitute natives, performing low‑status tasks that enable high‑skill productivity. A Vietnamese nanny lets an executive return to work; Filipino nurses sustain the NHS. Complementarity makes overall labour more productive.

Low‑skilled migration’s hidden power

Rich societies need service‑sector and care‑industry labour as populations age. Migrants fill gaps locals avoid. Gulam Noon’s ascent from Indian immigrant to founder of £50 million Noon Products shows how newcomers also create businesses. Labour mobility transfers skill and ambition—not dependency.

Fiscal and remittance effects

Most migrants contribute more than they cost. Lifetime fiscal studies (NAS 1997; Lee & Miller 2000) find small net positives or neutral balances. Meanwhile, remittances exceed official aid. In 2005 they ran to $167 billion; Mexico and the Philippines alone received tens of billions yearly. These flows fund education, housing, and community projects—Mexico’s “3‑for‑1” scheme multiplies remittances into public works. Migration thus redistributes prosperity from rich to poor nations directly through families.

Brain drain or brain circulation?

Legrain distinguishes between emigration losses and diaspora gains. Ghana’s medical exodus is tragic—yet diasporas like India’s in Silicon Valley show how knowledge flows back through networks. Sylvain Zongo’s return to Burkina Faso, wiring its first internet link, illustrates reverse transfer. Policies that nurture diaspora investment transform loss into gain. The lesson: measure by professions, build networks like SANSA and TiE, and use incentives not bans.

Migration’s economic effects are not zero‑sum. When managed, they raise global welfare and help both sending and receiving societies prosper.

In the global knowledge economy, countries compete for brains. Canada and Australia use points systems; the U.S. issues H‑1B visas; Britain courts creative sectors. Skilled migrants generate disproportionate innovation—Sergey Brin, Andy Grove, Jerry Yang—the icons of Silicon Valley. Networks like TiE link immigrant founders to Indian and Taiwanese ecosystems, enabling cross‑border start‑ups. AnnaLee Saxenian’s research confirms that immigrant‑led firms seed trade and technology flows.

Policy experiments

Canada admitted nearly 60,000 skilled entrants in 2004; Australia, 66,000; the U.S. caps H‑1B at 65,000 per year. These numbers showcase competition for talent but reveal pitfalls: highly educated migrants driving taxis illustrate mismatched planning. Governments cannot foresee labour‑market shifts perfectly; flexibility works better than rigid occupational lists.

Balancing skills and inclusiveness

Legrain argues that talent policy should include both high‑ and low‑skilled flows. Cities thrive on layered labour—from engineers to cleaners. Skilled programs should avoid bias that undervalues practical experience. Civic openness amplifies innovation because diverse teams, as Norman Johnson’s problem‑solving experiments show, outperform homogeneous ones.

You learn that creativity arises from mixing perspectives. Attracting talent globally sustains growth; restricting it suffocates dynamism. Flexible entry systems and workplace equality keep economies inventive and competitive.

Legrain rejects the idea that diversity erodes solidarity. Evidence suggests it enhances creativity and enriches daily life when managed fairly. Studies by Ottaviano & Peri reveal higher wages and rents in multicultural cities, implying people pay for diversity’s amenities. Culturally rich environments—London’s clubs, New York’s cuisines, Arsenal’s multinational football squad—demonstrate diversity’s performance advantage.

Integration models around the world

France enforces assimilation under laïcité, Canada institutionalises multiculturalism, and Germany is reforming its old guest‑worker framework. Integration succeeds when it’s reciprocal: migrants learn language and norms, and natives accept newcomers. Toronto offers thriving proof—public translation services and mixed neighbourhoods prevent ghettoisation.

Solidarity and the welfare state

David Goodhart’s “progressive dilemma” claims diversity undermines welfare generosity, yet data contradict this. Canada and Sweden prosper despite heavy immigration. The crucial variable is trust in institutions, not ethnic similarity. Because migrants are mostly young workers, they support ageing welfare systems rather than drain them. Diversity plus fair rules fosters both solidarity and growth.

For sustainability, invest in integration, enforce anti‑discrimination, and teach civic rights. When shared institutions replace tribal nostalgia, pluralism strengthens rather than weakens the social contract.

Islamic migration provokes unique anxieties about loyalty and safety. Legrain separates three questions: religious accommodation, civil rights, and violent extremism. Liberal societies must defend freedom of belief while preventing coercion and protecting equality. The problem lies not with ordinary Muslims but with exclusion that radical leaders exploit.

Accommodation without surrender

Permitting prayer spaces or halal food affirms pluralism; tolerating abuse or forced marriage violates rights. France’s headscarf ban shows risks of overreaction—it alienated communities instead of empowering girls. The cure is precise enforcement against coercion, not blanket bans.

Understanding radicalisation

Extremists like Mohammed Bouyeri represent marginal cases amplified by alienation. Second‑generation frustration, unemployment, and discrimination feed vulnerability to recruiters. El‑Farouk Khaki’s activism—openly gay, devout, and liberal—proves Islam’s internal diversity. Solutions require inclusion and policing together: local imam training, civic engagement of mosques, and equal rights for women within communities.

This balance—soft integration plus hard security—preserves liberal values while isolating violent minorities. It reminds you that pluralism and safety can coexist when liberty is intelligently defended.

Having examined principles and data, Legrain turns pragmatic. You can design policies that combine economic efficiency, fairness, and legality. Temporary‑worker schemes offer one approach: Canada’s farm programme brings Caribbean and Mexican workers for months under strict housing and pay standards, while U.S. proposals couple portable three‑year visas with tax‑free return savings. These experiments show cooperation reduces exploitation.

Core design features

Successful schemes allow employer flexibility and worker portability. Refundable deductions, return bonuses, or social‑security portability encourage voluntary return. Employer levies, as in Singapore, adjust demand transparently. Bilateral deals ensure monitoring and reintegration—for instance, Mexican consular oversight in Canada’s fields.

Global frameworks

Economists like Dani Rodrik and Alan Winters propose multilateral labour arrangements embedded in trade law (GATS Mode 4). Though complex, these would let nations trade temporary work rights like other services. Political appetite is low, but bilateral models already show feasibility.

For policymakers, the takeaway is clear: regulate flows through legal channels, reward cooperation, and penalise abuse. The goal isn’t perfect control but credible management—humane, flexible, and economically smart.

Legrain ultimately makes the moral case for openness. Locking people into poverty by birth location is unjust; letting them move unlocks vast human potential. When Britain opened to East European workers in 2004, unemployment remained stable, and migrants filled real labour gaps. Hanna, a Polish cleaner who legalised her work, represents how regularisation converts informal toil into taxable enterprise.

Economic proof

Terrie Walmsley and Alan Winters show that just modest liberalisation of labour mobility can raise global output dramatically. Migration transfers opportunity without aid bureaucracy—it’s bottom‑up development. Instead of spending billions on donor programmes, we could permit movement and let effort find its reward.

Managing the transition

Open borders need design: legal procedures, transparent taxes, and cooperation with sending countries. Employer levies can fund training for locals and reduce displacement fears. Integration support maintains cohesion. Regularising long‑term illegals reclaims governance and dignity, ending the hypocrisy of tolerated illegality.

Legrain’s moral conclusion is unmistakable: if freedom of movement eliminates poverty more effectively than aid or protectionism, then closing borders is both economically irrational and ethically indefensible. Managed openness is not naïve—it’s the mature response to a global interdependent age.