Philippe Legrain

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

The latest Transatlantic Trends survey of attitudes towards immigration in America and Europe finds that 47% of Europeans and 50% of Americans think immigration is more of a problem than an opportunity. But young Europeans (aged 18-34) are much more positive about immigration than older ones. In both the US and Europe, the better educated [...]

Photo by Sergio Betancort © Prisacom S.A. From El Pais.com They came from North Africa and reached Europe: the Canary Island of Lanzarote, Spain

Net immigration to the EU – immigrants less emigrants – was 1.9 million in 2007, according to Eurostat. Since the EU population is just shy of 500 million, the immigration rate was 0.38%. Spain had the highest level of net immigration: 702,000; Italy was second, with 494,000; Britain third, with 175,000. The Netherlands experienced net [...]

In a bid to reverse the brain drain out of Europe and attract talented foreigners to come work here, the EU is proposing to introduce a Blue Card visa, in a deliberate echo of the US’s much-coveted Green Card. The Green Card grants the holder the permanent right to live and work in America. The [...]

From the country that elected a former Nazi as president comes another outrage: In an extraordinary on-air outburst, Klaus Emmerich, the veteran Austrian television pundit, declared: “I would not want the western world to be directed by a black man.” When invited to retract, Mr Emmerich stood by what he had said, adding that “blacks [...]

What bank investors need from authorities is clarity. A concerted, pan-European drive to inject capital might provide it. As US fund manager John Hussman has suggested, that injection could be achieved via a “super-bond”, countable as capital and subordinate to customer deposits, but ranking ahead of both shareholders and even senior bondholders in the event [...]

Europe’s war against immigration is immoral and unwinnable. It’s time for a radical rethink. Read the full article in today’s Guardian

The Guardian, 8 August 2008. Europe’s war against immigration is immoral and unwinnable. It’s time for a radical rethink

1. Nine young children and six adults have died, with four more in a very serious state, in the latest tragic attempt by Africans to reach Europe. Full article in Spanish at El Pais; photos here. 2. The European Parliament has passed a motion demanding that the Berlusconi government stop collecting the fingerprints of gypsies [...]

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.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy is planning a Europe-wide crackdown on immigration when France takes over the reins of the EU in the second half of this year, according to documents seen by the FT. Not content with mismanaging France, it seems, Sarko is now determined to sow discord throughout Europe. Coming from the son of [...]

Thanks to Project Syndicate, my article on why Europe should open its borders to foreign workers has been reprinted in Turkish Weekly, the Japan Times, and the Times of Malta. Please let me know if you see it published anywhere else. Thanks

Spain is leading the way for a humane and common-sense approach to immigration. In 2005, the government allowed illegal immigrants to regularise their status, giving them the right to work legally.

Europe’s World, June 2007. Efforts to tighten immigration controls and even bring
them into line across Europe are short-sighted and
unworkable. The EU’s growing hunger for even unskilled labour means they are also economically flawed

Financial Times, 25 April 2007. It is time that Europe’s politicians admitted to voters that governments cannot stop people moving across borders. If open borders are politically unacceptable, Europe should create a legal route for people from developing nations to come and work, regulated through an extra payroll tax on foreign workers.

Ian Buruma writes in today’s FT about the elusive quest for a European soul. He remarks: The most inspiring thing about the EU is the mobility of its citizens, the way Europeans can live and work anywhere they want in Europe. Let there be more Polish builders in Paris, British designers in Berlin, French entrepreneurs [...]

Europeans are growing accustomed to TV footage of Africans piled on to rickety boats arriving in the Canary Islands. They may be less aware of the thousands of people who are trying to enter Europe from the east.