Philippe Legrain

A special edition of Ethos journal published for the World Cities Summit in Singapore features an article by me on the importance of migration and diversity to cities’ future.

One of the privileges of speaking about global migration issues is that I have come into contact with exceptional people who devote their lives to helping the less fortunate. Sue and Peter Hallam set up the Sanctuary Refugee Foundation in 1988 after what they describe as ‘a life-changing experience’ in Mexico, where they spent time [...]

Freedom Daily, The Future of Freedom Foundation, April 2008

Freedom Daily, The Future of Freedom Foundation, March 2008.

To mark Refugee Week, openDemocracy are publishing a special series on immigration. Read my article on why, since governments conspire to deny people the right to cross borders freely, pretending to be a refugee – or trying to enter Britain through other irregular means – is hardly terrible.

Público, 18 June 2008. ¿Cómo justifica una Europa que se dice civilizada la directiva de retorno de los inmigrantes?

Toumaï, la revista para los inmigrantes, reports on the Spanish launch of Inmigrantes Also, Público, a Spanish daily, has published my article on why the EU directive that would allow irregular migrants to be locked up for 18 months, is unfair and misconceived. 

Pablo Ximénez de Sandoval writes in El País quoting my report for Sweden’s Globalisation Council on why immigration can help pay for Europe’s welfare states.

I’m delighted that Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them is being published in Spanish by Intermón Oxfam. The official launch is on 11 June at the Madrid Book Fair, where I’ll be speaking (in Spanish). The Spanish-speaking world is at the heart of the global debate about migration. Mexico is the biggest source of emigrants in [...]

Andrew Rawnsley on Britain’s embattled prime minister: More and more critics contend that Gordon Brown’s fundamental weakness is not knowing what he wants to do with power. I disagree. His core purpose is easily stated and could provide a solid theme for his premiership. He believes that it is morally right and economically imperative to [...]

Will Wilkinson on why libertarians feel an increasing affinity for the liberal left rather than the socially conservative right: with the obsolescence of the anti-communist alliance with conservatives, many libertarians have sloughed off much of their previously tactically useful sympathy for socially conservative initiatives. Freed to be full-on social liberals, many libertarians are left sensing [...]

From the Commission on Growth and Development’s recent report, courtesy of Martin Wolf’s column in the FT:   1) The global economy is growing fast, and with it average living standards. 2) East Asia’s performance has been spectacular – living standards rose 10-fold between 1960 and 2004 – and even in Africa living standards doubled. [...]

Great article on the benefits of the new mobility within Europe by Roland Rudd of Business for New Europe Danny Sriskandarajah of IPPR in the WSJ Europe. Link might be subscriber-only; available subscription-free here.

France is home to 5 million Muslims, but not a single Muslim member of parliament. So much for the success of France’s supposedly religion- and colour-blind republic. Sarkozy’s controversial justice minister, Rachida Dati, is the first figure of Muslim origin to hold senior ministerial office in that country. She is young, female, of North African [...]

Willem Buiter’s blog, Maverecon, hosted by the FT is wide-ranging, always profoundly stimulating and humanistic, and generally on the mark. Though primarily about economics, and sometimes a bit technical for non-economists, it is highly recommended for everyone. Recently, he has, for instance, argued that Britain is a giant hedge fund that is more like Iceland [...]