Debating the Lords report with Robert Skidelsky

Does immigration benefit Britain? [Updated]

I debated this with Andrew Green of MigrationWatch on Radio 4's World at One programme on Thursday 27 March. Unfortunately, my contribution to the pre-recorded discussion was severely cut, so that many of the important points I made went unsaid, while Green was allowed to speak at length.

UPDATE: The BBC have very kindly published an extended version of the interview. Listen here

Interviewed on Little Atoms [Updated]

I was a guest on Little Atoms on Friday 18 January. It is a show about ideas on London's Resonance 104.4 FM.

This great radio show's motto is George Orwell's remark that "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear".

You can listen to my interview here.

Is Britain full up? Part 2

I debated the issue of Britain's population is unsustainably large with Crispin Tickell on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning. Listen to it here.

Is Britain full up?

The Office of National Statistics forecasts that Britain's population will reach 70 million by 2030, with half of the 10 million rise due to migration. If this forecast proves to be correct, is it a bad thing? I debated this on Channel 4 News:

Denmark needs talented foreigners

My keynote speech at the Confederation of Danish Industries' annual business summit in Copenhagen last week:

Denmark needs all kinds of immigrants

I made the case for why Denmark needs more immigrants on Deadline, which is a bit like BBC Newsnight. The interview is in English with Danish subtitles.

Interview on Leonard Lopate show

I was interviewed on WNYC radio by Leonard Lopate, a conversation that I very much enjoyed. Listen here.

Carnegie Council speech

The speech I gave at the Carnegie Council in New York focuses on the ethics of the immigration debate. Listen here.

The Panel on RTE2

I appeared on The Panel, a comedy and current affairs show on Ireland's RTE 2, on 2 May. The video is 14 mins long, so it is split into two parts on YouTube.

Interviewed by Margaret Throsby

When I was last in Australia in February, I appeared on ABC's Mornings with Margaret Throsby, a radio interview show interspersed with my favourite pieces of classical music. I just found the recording today, so I'm putting it up now. It's a much more relaxed and broad-ranging interview than most. Listen to it here

On (Claire) Fox News

I was on Claire Fox News on 18 Doughty Street TV this evening discussing immigration with Claire Fox of the Institute of Ideas, Nathalie Rothschild of Spiked and John Fitzpatrick of the University of Kent. Watch it here

Debating immigration on Radio 4's PM programme

With Liam Byrne, Britain's immigration minister, warning of the risks of "uncontrolled immigration" and singing the praises of the government's proposal for a new Australian-style immigration points system, I went head-to-head on BBC Radio 4's PM programme with David Conway of Civitas, who claims that immigrants are quite literally a plague on British society. Listen here

The Moral Maze

I appeared as a "witness" on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze last week. The topic was what to do about asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected, but are living in the UK destitute and without the right to work.

The four witnesses, starting with Kate Adie, who helped write a new report on the issue by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, were quizzed by a panel of Claire Fox, Steven Rose, Theodore Dalrymple and Michael Portillo. I was the third witness, but unfortunately the panel failed to ask me questions about the issue at hand, and instead jumped erratically around the wider immigration, and in particular my belief in open borders.

It was perhaps entertaining, but it failed to answer the question. The real issue is that our border controls don't work: they don't stop immigration, they make it costly and risky, and for the most part drive it underground. Surely it would be better if we legalised and regulated it instead? Listen here

Should we worry that foreign companies are taking over British ones?

On the day that India's Tata won a bidding war for Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker that was once British Steel, I debated whether such foreign takeovers of British companies are a good thing with Will Hutton of the Work Foundation on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Listen here

Debating immigration on BBC Radio 4's Today programme

I debated immigration with Labour MP Frank Field on the Today programme (16 January). Unfortunately, the discussion got bogged down in statistics so I didn't have time to discuss the broader issues. Listen here

Debating immigration on BBC Radio 3's Nightwaves

I was again debating immigration with Andrew Green of anti-immigration lobby group Migrationwatch on Nightwaves, BBC 3's flagship culture and ideas show last night.

Green contends that he has nothing against future or existing immigrants, but argues in the same breath that they are diluting "traditional British culture". Unfortunately, time ran out before I got a chance to ask him this question: does he think curry houses, R&B music or writers like Zadie Smith are a welcome addition to British culture or not? Does he think they are British at all? They certainly aren't part of that mythical monolith known as "traditional British culture" that he harks back to. Listen here

Are immigrants changing London for better or worse?

As part of a series on BBC1's London news about people who have left the capital, BBC London interviewed Londoners who had emigrated to Cyprus because they felt there were too many foreigners in the capital. I then debated whether the rising number of immigrants in London was a good or bad thing with George Walden, the former Conservative minister and author of "Time to Emigrate?":

Interviewed about immigration on the Simon Mayo show on BBC Radio Five Live

I was a guest on the Simon Mayo show on BBC Radio Five Live on 4 January, talking about my new book.

Listen to parts one, two and three

Does immigration benefit Britain?

Anti-immigration lobby group Migrationwatch has produced a narrow and misleading report claiming that immigration barely benefits Britain. BBC Newsnight asked me to produce a clip setting the record straight. This was followed by a studio discussion on 3 January led by Gavin Esler with Andrew Green of Migrationwatch, Damian Green, the Conservatives' spokesman on immigration, and Ann Cryer, the anti-immigration Labour MP.

Andrew Green, who seizes on any old statistic to justify his xenophobic prejudice, trotted out his usual disingenuous line: I'm not against immigrants in general, there are just too many of them and Britain is full up.

Cryer zigzagged all over the place, shamelessly pretending she opposed immigration because she was worried about the exploitation of illegal foreign workers. But contrary to what Cryer said, the tragic deaths of the Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay are an indictment not of immigration in general, but of our draconian but ineffective immigration controls.

Here is the program in two parts:

A not-so-warm welcome to the EU for Bulgaria and Romania

Happy New Year!

It is a particularly happy day for the 30 million Bulgarians and Romanians who today join the European Union. Welcome back to the European club.

Unfortunately, the British government, which wisely allowed the citizens of Poland and the 7 other ex-communist countries that joined the EU in 2004 to come work in this country, has bowed to anti-immigration scaremongering and imposed restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian immigration.

But, just as with the Poles and other East Europeans who have come work here in the past 2 years, Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants would be good for Britain, doing jobs that Britons can't or won't do, and helping the economy to continue growing faster for longer without sparking inflation or raising unemployment, and thus boosting everyone's living standards.

I was interviewed about this on BBC1's Breakfast news show on 31 December. Sorry that the image quality of the first 15 seconds of the clip is very poor; I'll try to sort it out ASAP. Thanks

War on Want are wrong to claim Bangladeshi garment workers are exploited

War on Want, a British lobby group, on Friday launched a campaign against Primark, Tesco and Asda for selling cheap clothes made by Bangladeshi workers whom the lobby group claim are exploited because they "regularly work 80 hours a week for just 5p an hour".

I debated the charge that such "sweatshops" are harming Bangladeshi workers in a debate with John Hilary of War on Want on BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show: Listen here

How best to tackle global poverty?

Discussing debt relief and third world development with Noreena Hertz on the Today Programme. Listen here

Fox News: Who's 'zooming' who? Europe or the US?

HARDtalk: Is the anti-globalisation movement wrong?

On BBC News 24's HARDtalk tonight (Friday 13 December), Allan Little interviews Philippe Legrain, economist.

Globalisation is, to many, the issue of our age. More trade means more wealth creation and greater prosperity for rich and poor alike, its supporters say.

Why then after a decade of radical liberalisation is so much of the world sinking into deeper poverty while the rich nations get steadily richer?

And why does the anti-globalisation movement seem to have ignited the passion of so many, especially the young?

Philippe Legrain is an evangelist for globalisation. He is an economist and a former special advisor to the World Trade Organisation. He talks to Allan Little.