<p>Who is the author of Immigrants?</p>

<p>Philippe Legrain is the author of Immigrants.</p>

Politics

Immigrants Book Summary - Immigrants Book explained in key points

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Immigrants summary

Name: Immigrants
Rating: 4 (43 reviews)
Author: Philippe Legrain

Philippe Legrain

Your Country Needs Them

4 (43 ratings)

21 mins

Brief summary

'Immigrants' by Philippe Legrain is a persuasive and deeply researched book that sheds light on the contributions of immigrants to economies and societies around the world. Legrain argues that openness to immigration is not only right but ultimately beneficial for everyone involved.

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Immigrants
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Discover how migration shapes the world for the better.

Immigration is a fiercely debated topic, which often leaves immigrants as the scapegoat for society’s ills. On cable news and on the street, political pundits and concerned citizens lament that immigrants from around the world are coming to “take our jobs” and ruin our civilization, blaming them for rising crime and economic instability.

But as you’ll soon find out, these beliefs aren’t just racist – they’re totally backward.

In fact, migrants are a boon, both for their destinations as well as their countries of origin, providing their new homes with skilled and unskilled labor as well as a previously unmatched cultural richness. What’s more, some of the very institutions that opponents of immigration fear will fall by the wayside with illegal immigration, such as social welfare, can only be maintained by opening up the borders.

Not only is migration highly advantageous – it’s also a human right. Societies across the globe would do well to reconsider their stance on immigration in favor of economically smart, and more humane, immigration policies.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

why a shrinking population helped Sweden become what it is today;
why the Philippines encourage emigration; and
how it’s possible for a country to have too many doctors and engineers.

Migration is a human right that has been asserted throughout history.

No matter where you live on the planet, you’ll probably notice that a portion of the population has a certain animosity toward immigrants and immigration. In many countries the media is awash with stories about the “floods” of immigrants crossing the border to snatch up jobs and welfare.

However, these fears are misplaced.

For starters, the process of migration has been ongoing for thousands of years, and is by no means a recent phenomenon. Indeed, people have been on the move since the dawn of human history. Our ancient ancestors, for example, migrated to the four corners of the globe from a central point: Africa.

In the nineteenth century, technological innovations, such as the steam ship and train, accelerated the process of migration. During this period, most migration was from the Old World – Europe – to the New World of the Americas.

However, in the twentieth century, the dynamics of migration took a 180-degree turn: suddenly people were mostly moving from the developing world to the developed one.

It is this change that conjured up the idea of a mass exodus to the West. But there is no such exodus. If you look at the numbers, the migrant population remains relatively small: only a few million people migrate to the West annually, compared to the billions of people who remain behind in the developing world.

Immigration only seems high because migrants head to only a handful of destination countries.

History aside, migration is also a human right.

All too often, when we look at those who enter our country, we only see one side of their experience: immigration. But migration is a two-way process: every immigrant is also an emigrant.

People leave their home countries for an endless number of reasons, and the right to emigrate is even codified by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thus, in impeding someone’s ability to migrate – and thus emigrate – you are a denying them their basic human rights.

Nevertheless, as you’ll see in the following blinks, many governments try to curb the amount of immigrants coming into their country.

Impeding migration is morally wrong, and only leads to death and exploitation.

Often politicians, both on the right and the left, pontificate about the dangers of migration and advocate for stringent control of the borders. However, any attempt at controlling immigration is morally wrong.

Firstly, it smacks of racism to view immigration as a bane to society. Of course, society is bound to experience changes with an influx of immigrants. Some of these will be objectively bad, such as the collapse of old solidarities between or within groups of people.

Migration is impossible to prevent and too expensive to try to minimize.

Many places do their best to make immigration difficult. The European Union, for example, controls its external borders carefully, and the United States is building a fence across its Mexican border while increasing the pay for border patrols.

Indeed, the cost of preventing free movement is enormous, both in terms of money and lives. The US Congress, for instance, quintupled its spending on border security from 1993 to 2004 (finally reaching $3.8 billion) while tripling the size of the border patrol. Yet, despite this huge layout, the number of illegal immigrants is estimated to have stayed the same.

Migrants’ countries of origin can benefit from emigration.

When people in the West think about migration, they often only consider its effects on their own countries. Often, they miss the great impacts that migration has on migrants’ countries of origin.

When Westerners do take this into consideration, they usually only consider brain drain, the exodus of many highly skilled members of society into another country. However, this is a major oversimplification.

Immigrants benefit the economies of their destination countries.

The discourse around immigration often conjures images of shifty immigrants “taking” jobs from locals or lowering wages. But does immigration really cost jobs?

The notion that the economic benefits enjoyed by one country or person rest on another’s loss is incorrect. In fact, immigration leads to economic prosperity from which everyone benefits.

Diversity leads to creativity, prosperity and benefits for all.

The economies of today’s developed countries are increasingly based on knowledge. Thus, to achieve prosperity, different ideas and experiences have to come together.

Luckily, migration provides ample opportunity for sharing ideas. Indeed, multicultural cities are hubs of creativity, prosperity and development.

Low-skilled immigration is beneficial to a country and is hard to stop.

When the media or populist politicians launch into tirades against the dangers of immigrants, they don’t take issue with the managers or surgeons – i.e., highly-skilled labor – who arrive on their shores. Rather, they rail against the “masses” of low-skilled workers.

In order to combat the alleged dangers of low-skilled immigration, many countries employ a “points-based” system whereby immigrants may only enter the country if they can demonstrate skills assumed to be beneficial to the society.

We need to rethink integration.

What do people want most from immigrants? Many want immigrants to integrate – to abandon the cultural practices of their old lives and adopt those of their new homes. But is this a fair demand? Should immigrants be expected to completely conform to the culture of their destination countries?

Wanting immigrants to integrate in this way suggests that all immigrants are the same, and that they all hold beliefs and share cultural practices that are wrong and need to be replaced.

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What is Immigrants about?

Immigrants offers a compelling case for a total revamp of the way most people view immigration and immigrants. It provides a detailed description of the case against immigration, while providing solid evidence for the great benefits, both social and economic, that migration provides.

Immigrants Review

Immigrants (2007) by Philippe Legrain presents a powerful exploration of the economic, social, and cultural contributions that immigrants bring to their adopted countries. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It challenges prevailing misconceptions and prejudices about immigrants, offering a fresh perspective on their positive impact on societies.
The book provides a wealth of research-backed evidence and case studies to illustrate the economic benefits that immigrants bring to host nations.
Through a compelling narrative and personal stories, it presents a humanizing account of immigrants, showing their resilience, determination, and creativity.

Who should read Immigrants?

Anyone concerned by migration
Anyone unimpressed by the notion of a more open world
Anyone trying to understand why anyone would want to leave their home country

About the Author

Philippe Legrain is an economist and political scientist whose writings on globalization and migration appear in the Guardian. In addition, he has authored a number of critically acclaimed books, including Open World: The Truth about Globalization and Aftershock: Reshaping the World Economy After the Crisis.

Categories with Immigrants

Politics Society & Culture

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