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Written by Simon
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Saturday, 22 March 2008 |
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Lant Pritchett has written an important book about migration, the international impass about migration and how he thinks we should solve it. Buy this book.
Read my review
What a great effort by Lant Pritchett. “Let Their People Come” deconstructs the very thorny issue of immigration. He explains the both the pressures for increased “labor mobility”, his name for migration, and the “immovable ideas” against it from the developed world and he does so with entertaining and insight-filled writing. He makes a very good case for allowing more unskilled labor mobility. That more mobility would be the best way to improve the live of those who live in the less developed countries at the lowest cost to the residents of wealthy countries. I am a fairly avid reader of books about immigration and found his book to be filled with new information and insights about the opportunities and obstacles related to the topic of immigration.
Pritchett concludes that the only politically viable way to increase labor mobility is to implement new guest worker programs. It is easy to disagree with his conclusions, as we do at Radical Immigration, but his presentation of the realities of the immigration debate and the politics of the debate make this a must read for anyone interested in understanding this complex issue.
In his explanation of the “immovable ideas” resisting increased labor mobility he immediately confront the real cause of the resistance. “The ultimate reason that there is not massively more mobility of labor across national borders … is that the citizens of rich countries do not want it.” He then construct the framework of an international guest worker program that would help in his opinion overcome this objection.
This is very good, very readable, book that takes an honest look at a difficult subject and proposes a solution.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 22 March 2008 )
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