Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them
Immigration divides our globalizing world like no other issue. We are swamped by illegal immigrants and infiltrated by terrorists, our jobs stolen, our welfare system abused, our way of life destroyed—or so we are told. At a time when National Guard units are deployed alongside vigilante Minutemen on the U.S.-Mexico border, where the death toll in the past decade now exceeds 9/11's, Philippe Legrain has written the first book about immigration that looks beyond the headlines. Why are ever-rising numbers of people from poor countries arriving in the United States, Europe, and Australia? Can we keep them out? Should we even be trying?


Combining compelling firsthand reporting from around the world, incisive socioeconomic analysis, and a broad understanding of what's at stake politically and culturally, Immigrants is a passionate but lucid book. In our open world, more people will inevitably move across borders, Legrain says—and we should generally welcome them. They do the jobs we can't or won't do—and their diversity enriches us all. Left and Right, free marketeers and campaigners for global justice, enlightened patriots—all should rally behind the cause of freer migration, because They need Us and We need Them.

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Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them
Immigration divides our globalizing world like no other issue. We are swamped by illegal immigrants and infiltrated by terrorists, our jobs stolen, our welfare system abused, our way of life destroyed—or so we are told. At a time when National Guard units are deployed alongside vigilante Minutemen on the U.S.-Mexico border, where the death toll in the past decade now exceeds 9/11's, Philippe Legrain has written the first book about immigration that looks beyond the headlines. Why are ever-rising numbers of people from poor countries arriving in the United States, Europe, and Australia? Can we keep them out? Should we even be trying?


Combining compelling firsthand reporting from around the world, incisive socioeconomic analysis, and a broad understanding of what's at stake politically and culturally, Immigrants is a passionate but lucid book. In our open world, more people will inevitably move across borders, Legrain says—and we should generally welcome them. They do the jobs we can't or won't do—and their diversity enriches us all. Left and Right, free marketeers and campaigners for global justice, enlightened patriots—all should rally behind the cause of freer migration, because They need Us and We need Them.

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Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them

Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them

by Philippe Legrain
Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them

Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them

by Philippe Legrain

Paperback(Reprint)

$25.95 
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Overview

Immigration divides our globalizing world like no other issue. We are swamped by illegal immigrants and infiltrated by terrorists, our jobs stolen, our welfare system abused, our way of life destroyed—or so we are told. At a time when National Guard units are deployed alongside vigilante Minutemen on the U.S.-Mexico border, where the death toll in the past decade now exceeds 9/11's, Philippe Legrain has written the first book about immigration that looks beyond the headlines. Why are ever-rising numbers of people from poor countries arriving in the United States, Europe, and Australia? Can we keep them out? Should we even be trying?


Combining compelling firsthand reporting from around the world, incisive socioeconomic analysis, and a broad understanding of what's at stake politically and culturally, Immigrants is a passionate but lucid book. In our open world, more people will inevitably move across borders, Legrain says—and we should generally welcome them. They do the jobs we can't or won't do—and their diversity enriches us all. Left and Right, free marketeers and campaigners for global justice, enlightened patriots—all should rally behind the cause of freer migration, because They need Us and We need Them.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691165912
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 09/28/2014
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 392
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Philippe Legrain is a British economist, journalist, and writer. Previously trade and economics correspondent for the Economist and special adviser to the director-general of the World Trade Organization, he is the author of Open World: The Truth About Globalization, and has written for the Financial Times, the New Republic, and Foreign Policy, among other publications

Table of Contents

PREFACE ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xv

Introduction: MIGRATION ISN'T JUST FOR THE BIRDS 1

It's time for fresh thinking about immigration

Chapter 1: WAR ON OUR BORDERS 23

The hidden costs of immigration controls

Chapter 2: BORDER CROSSING 44

How migrants got to where they are now

Chapter 3: WHY WE NEED THE HUDDLED MASSES 61

The case for low-skilled migration

Chapter 4: THE GLOBAL TALENT CONTEST 89

The pros and cons of high-skilled migration

Chapter 5: COSMOPOLITAN AND RICH 117

The economic benefits of diversity

Chapter 6: STEALING OUR JOBS? 133

Do immigrants displace local workers?

Chapter 7: SNOUTS IN OUR TROUGH? 144

Are immigrants a burden on the welfare state?

Chapter 8: OUR HEROES' 161

How migration helps poor countries

Chapter 9: BRAIN DRAIN OR BRAIN GAIN? 179

The costs and benefits of skilled emigration

Chapter 10: IT NEEDN'T BE FOREVER 198

The case for temporary migration

Chapter 11: ALIEN NATION? 207

Does immigration threaten national identity?

Chapter 12: HUNTINGTON AND HISPANICS 226

Is Latino immigration splitting America in two?

Chapter 13: STRANGER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME? 245

Does immigration threaten social solidarity?

Chapter 14: LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER 258

How to integrate immigrants into society

Chapter 15: ILLIBERAL ISLAM? 289

Do Muslim immigrants threaten our security and our way of life?

Chapter 16: OPEN BORDERS 318

Let them in

NOTES 334

INDEX 360

What People are Saying About This

Tyler Cowen

The single best non-technical defense of a liberal immigration policy. What I liked most was how it put U.S. debates in a broader context; most American sources don't do this.... The book is original in this regard, yet without moving beyond easily understood arguments.
Tyler Cowen, author of "Discover Your Inner Economist"

Tim Harford

We expect crisp writing and careful analysis from Philippe Legrain. In Immigrants, he adds reporting from across the world and a passionate defense of our freedom to cross borders. By turns logical, daring, and compassionate, this is a terrific book.
Tim Harford, author of "The Undercover Economist"

From the Publisher

"We expect crisp writing and careful analysis from Philippe Legrain. In Immigrants, he adds reporting from across the world and a passionate defense of our freedom to cross borders. By turns logical, daring, and compassionate, this is a terrific book."—Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist

"The single best non-technical defense of a liberal immigration policy. What I liked most was how it put U.S. debates in a broader context; most American sources don't do this.... The book is original in this regard, yet without moving beyond easily understood arguments."—Tyler Cowen, author of Discover Your Inner Economist

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