Philippe Legrain

Three, perhaps 4, boats laden with migrants people heading from Libya to Italy sink. As many as 300 people could be dead. Europe's border controls claim more lives. The official response? We need tougher controls.

Rather than appealing to Muslims as British citizens, with a variety of views and beliefs, politicians of all hues prefer to see them as people whose primary loyalty is to their faith and who can be engaged only by other Muslims. Should we be surprised then if, as a consequence, many Muslims come to see [...]

Our biggest domestic menace never was waiting outside Home Depot, hoping to clean your basement. Unauthorized immigrants are not about to destroy anything, not even when they get angry and loud and march in large groups. On the contrary, they are inspiring. Their ethic of self-reliance and hard work is one that Americans should recognize [...]

As more Americans lose their jobs, the U.S. government is actively discouraging the recruitment of foreign workers, from dude ranchers and fruit pickers to lifeguards and computer programmers. Full article in WSJ. In the NYT, Casey Mulligan points out how that preventing foreigners working to save American jobs is as absurd as the "marriage bars" [...]

McKinsey, March 2009. Today, globalization is neither uniform nor universal. It will always be incomplete. Clearly, then, it is also reversible.

Today, globalisation is neither uniform nor universal. It will always be incomplete. Clearly, then, it is also reversible. Read my new article for McKinsey here

Ha-Joon Chang's suggestion that the world needs a dose of protectionism to tide it through the global recession is utterly misguided. Read my new article for Prospect here.

Prospect, April 2009. Ha-Joon Chang’s suggestion that the world needs a dose of protectionism is utterly misguided

After the Omnibus Appropriations Bill signed into law by President Obama scrapped a pilot programme that allowed a small number of Mexican trucking companies to carry cargoes north of the border – as NAFTA requires – Mexico has responded by slapping tariffs of up to 45% on 90 American agricultural and industrial imports. Renault is [...]

I'm writing a new book, on the future of globalisation. It will look at the risks to globalisation from the ongoing crisis (such as protectionism, nationalism and political extremism) and ask what needs to change in the global economy – and what shouldn't. As with my previous books, this will involve a combination of first-hand [...]

Jenny Abura on the benefits of migrants' remittances to Uganda Remittances to Latin America are falling Ecuador, which receives most of its remittances from recession-hit Spain, suffered a 22% fall in the last three months of 2008. Finland's former finance minister on the need to protect the world's poor from the consequences of falling remittances

Hispanic immigrants who work in construction, hotels and other blue-collar jobs have suffered from the brutal economic climate. But immigrant gardeners appear to be weathering the harsh conditions well. "Gardening isn't like working at a factory, where you depend on one employer," says Manuel Quezada, a 54-year-old veteran gardener, as he and his team put [...]