Philippe Legrain

I was interviewed on Frost over the World on 20 February. They won’t be making a film about the interview, but it was a great opportunity to meet a living icon.

Very kind review by Michael Englard in the Observer: Legrain's book makes a timely case for the benefits of migration and crisply counters the views of its prominent critics Legrain is able to communicate complex ideas through impressively chiselled prose. Thanks

The Big Issue, 9 February 2009.

A vessel overladen with migrants, near the Italian island of Lampedusa. Photo by Mashid Mohadjerin/ Reporters, from the World Press Photo Awards.

The Guardian, 12 February 2009. Instead of making divisive statements about immigrant workers, we should talk about how to create more jobs for everyone

As the recession bites, unemployment soars, and protests against foreign workers proliferate, the publication of Office for National Statistics figures (pdf) showing that the number of foreign-born people in work rose last year would appear to confirm what opponents of immigration have been saying all along: foreigners are taking "British" jobs. But the picture is [...]

 (Andrew Brownbill/EPA) The Australian Prime Minister accused arsonists of “mass murder” today as the death toll from savage bushfires sweeping parts of the country reached 131. What on earth motivates people to start fires like that? It's horrific.

First they went after the gypsies… and now the vile Berlusconi government is trying to crack down on immigrants more generally. Under a proposed new law, doctors would be able to snitch on illegal immigrants they treat, while foreigners who fail to leave Italy after receiving a deportation order could be imprisoned for up to [...]

With the X-word currently dominating the headlines, there could be no better time for this intelligent, wholly persuasive defensive of immigration. Scourging the xenophobia that sprouts at times of economic downturn, Legrain insists that clamping down on immigration is "morally wrong, economically stupid and politically unsustainable". He points out that immigrants, who usually only wish [...]

What do you get when you mix inhumanity with bureaucratic targets? Immigration raids that make up the numbers by rounding up the easiest targets rather than the most dangerous fugitives. The New York Times reports that: Federal immigration officials had repeatedly told Congress that among more than half a million immigrants with outstanding deportation orders, [...]

The Guardian, 4 February 2009. Free movement of labour makes economic and moral sense. Without it the EU would unravel

Free movement of labour makes economic and moral sense. Without it the EU would unravelRead my article in today's Guardian