If ever there was a subject calculated to divide opinions and families
in europe, it is immigration. It is not one which this blog often covers
– although the political fall-out over Brexit saw me reading at the end of last
year (and commenting about) both The Strange
Death of Europe – immigration, identity, Islam by Douglas Murray (2017);
and The
Road to Somewhere – the new tribes shaping British politics; by David
Goodhart (2017).
When a year or so later he received an invitation to help Lebanon brainstorm about how it should deal with the increasing pressures of refugees from surrounding countries, he agreed only because the colleague who accompanied him was a refugee expert – the result is as strong a critique as you will find of how countries have dealt with the refugee crisis…Refuge – transforming a broken refugee system; Betts and Collier (2018)
And, in anticipating the Brexit vote in 2016, I did spell out why
immigration was the only issue in the referendum.
It was, however, the horrific images in 2015 of refugees drowning in
the Mediterranean, scaling the fences and marching to Germany which brought
home to most people like myself the scale of the global exodus. But I readily
confess that I thereafter ignored the issue – although I was well aware that prevailing
liberal (for which read economists’) opinion dismissed people’s fears.
It was therefore only this week that I discovered that there was at
least one writer who had – as long ago as 2013 - demonstrated in his forensic
examination of the issue the even-handedness you expect of a real professional.
And that is Paul Collier whose Exodus – immigration and multiculturalism in the 21st
century (2013) tells us on its
very first page that his own
grandfather had migrated from a German village a hundred years earlier.
You would therefore expect Sir
Paul (for he was knighted a few years back) to be one of the globalists very
much in favour of migration.
But far from it – his decades of working in Africa as a development
economist have made him painfully aware not merely of the increasing
attractions of rich European cities to poor people but of the social costs
involved in such upheavals - for both host societies and those left behind.
His “Exodus” is a painstaking attempt to separate out various arguments – social and economic – and to explore the dynamics of the relevant “stocks” and “flows” and is essential reading for those who would dare to venture into the policy debate.
He looks at the migrant (both skilled and unskilled); at the costs and benefits incurred by the society he leaves; and at the costs and benefits to the host society in a variety of scenarios.
One interesting feature of his analysis is the focus on the diapora - and the rate at which immigrants are “absorbed” or socialised into the host society….easier in America than in Europe.
His “Exodus” is a painstaking attempt to separate out various arguments – social and economic – and to explore the dynamics of the relevant “stocks” and “flows” and is essential reading for those who would dare to venture into the policy debate.
He looks at the migrant (both skilled and unskilled); at the costs and benefits incurred by the society he leaves; and at the costs and benefits to the host society in a variety of scenarios.
One interesting feature of his analysis is the focus on the diapora - and the rate at which immigrants are “absorbed” or socialised into the host society….easier in America than in Europe.
The book was a change of focus for him – trying to understand the
impact of immigration on a society like the UK and bringing a sensibility
unfortunately all too rare amongst economists.
When a year or so later he received an invitation to help Lebanon brainstorm about how it should deal with the increasing pressures of refugees from surrounding countries, he agreed only because the colleague who accompanied him was a refugee expert – the result is as strong a critique as you will find of how countries have dealt with the refugee crisis…Refuge – transforming a broken refugee system; Betts and Collier (2018)
Further Reading
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