Creative Class

That’s the title of an intriguing new book by Phillippe Legrain. Here’s an excerpt from
Martin Wolf’s review in the Financial Times.

In a thought-provoking new book, Philippe
Legrain, the British author of Open World,
a splendid work on globalisation, takes a bold position: let them all
in.  More precisely he says: “It would be best if our borders were
completely open. But if that is deemed impossible for now, let them at
least be more open. And if even that is not acceptable, let them at
least be better regulated.”

Mr. Legrain performs an invaluable
service: he makes a good case for the unpopular cause of free flows of
people. The book is a superb combination of direct reportage with
detailed analysis of the evidence…

We must also recognise that, as Mr. Legrain
argues, migration does bring large benefits. The biggest aggregate
global gains come from moving people out of bad environments into good
ones. But the biggest gains to recipient countries, I suggest, come
from greater diversity itself.

Mr. Legrain quotes Richard Florida
of George Mason University: “Regional economic growth is powered by
creative people, who prefer places that are diverse, tolerant and open
to new ideas.” A quarter of the people now working in London were born
abroad. It would be nothing like as prosperous or as exciting a place
without them.

Toleration of the
intolerant must cease where the latter threatens the sustainability of
the diverse society itself. Whether it will be possible to achieve this
in today’s circumstances is unclear. But there is no doubt about the
importance of trying.

In addition to maintaining the very
qualities that made it a magnet in the first place, a society must
decide how to control the inflow. Mr. Legrain makes a compelling case
against the inflexibility of “picking winners” in immigration. My own
view has long been that work permits should be auctioned, with the
price giving guidance on how many people should be let in. When people
are let in, it is also right to help them obtain what is needed to
participate in a liberal democracy: above all, the dominant language
and some understanding of its institutions and history.

Mr.
Legrain is right on two big points: migration cannot be stopped; and it
can indeed bring benefits to almost everyone. But it also poses a
bigger challenge than he admits. The answer, I believe, is twofold:
controlling the borders, however imperfectly; and, still more,
insisting on the core values of the host society. The results will be
imperfect. But the alternatives of either complete freedom of movement
or a fortress are both impossible. What we are left with is the ancient
art of compromise.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Globalization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.