Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future [Hardcover]

In a recent interview, Ian Goldin said (and I am paraphrasing) that if he was ever made dictator of the world for one day he would prohibit people who don't believe in globalization from consuming or using any product that was produced in a foreign country or was made from raw materials that have come from other countries. These people will be so miserable. They will not be able to use cell phones, cars, etc... Well, you get the point.

In this book, the authors lay down the case that immigration is good for the sending countries, it's good for the receiving countries, it's good for the migrant and it's good for the world in general. The authors provide plenty of empirical evidence to back this argument. To state a few:

1.According to data from the World Bank, migrants send back home over $350 billion a year, a sum much greater than all world aid granted to developing nations.

2. A big part of this money goes to education for the next generation, which helps grow the economy over the long run.

3. At an aggregate level, immigration stimulates the economy of receiving countries because low skilled foreign workers often take the jobs that are not wanted by native workers. Furthermore, by taking these jobs, business are able to offer services at a lower price which every consumer benefits from. According to the authors, "in the late 1980s and 1990s U.S. cities that had high levels of immigration saw reductions in the costs of housekeeping, gardening, child care, dry cleaning, and other labor intensive services." (p.167).

4. A common fallacy is that foreign workers rely on social benefits and therefore are a drag on taxpayers and the economy in general. According to the authors this is just not true: "Research based on data from 2004 to 2008 on the net fiscal impact of the immigration of Polish, Czech, and other migrants to the UK from ten countries that joined the European Union in 2004 showed that the migrants contributed 'significantly' more in taxes than they received in benefits and services." (p.170).

5. Highly skilled foreign workers also contribute by starting new businesses and creating new jobs. Migrants have founded Google, Intel, PayPal, eBay and Yahoo. Moreover, migrants account for around 25% of all global patent applications from the United States.

This book couldn't have been published at a better time when governments all over the world have been implementing stricter and stricter rules against immigration due to the financial crisis. Hopefully, policy-makers will read this book and implement some of its ideas.

In conclusion, this book is well argued and researched. It has plenty of interesting statistics and profound ideas that will be greatly appreciated by people interested in such topics. Highly recommended.

Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron, and Meera Balarajan set themselves the ambitious goal of challenging the dogma that an increase in cross-border migration is undesirable. To that end, Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan first review the key role that migrants played in spreading ideas and knowledge before the advent of modern communication technologies. The authors analyze subsequently the contemporary period of managed migration that arose in the wake of WWI. Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan do a great job in highlighting the paradox in which the world has operated mostly for the last century. Humanity lives in an increasingly globalized environment. At the same time, the international flow of people has never been as tightly regulated as it is today.

The authors share with their audience the evidence that clearly show that sending and receiving countries as well as a majority of migrants benefit from migration today.

Many developed countries face concomitantly shrinking workforces and aging populations, resulting in a higher economic demand for low-skilled workers. Many (service) jobs will not fall prey to technology. Furthermore, undocumented migration has been quietly tolerated for a long time. These (low-skilled) migrants are meeting critical needs in the economies of the receiving countries. Think for example about the agricultural sector in the United States. In addition, enterprises, especially the large companies, will keep the pressure on (elected) officials to admit more high-skilled workers, especially in academic, business, and technologies. Businesses are often interested in hiring people with cross-cultural skills and perspectives and the education to thrive in an information-driven environment. Think for example about the high-skilled immigrants who often end up founding enterprises, which create much-needed jobs in the United States. The competition for this talent is expected to gain in intensity along with the rise of emerging economies.

To their credit, Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan note with much honesty that while the fiscal impact of migration in a country like the United States is strongly positive at the national level, it can be substantially negative at state and local levels. What matters more than absolute sizes of migration populations is the rate at which they grow.

The authors conclude that raising taxes, postponing retirement, convincing more women to work (with childcare, part-time work, and other incentives) and rolling back public services will probably not be enough to overcome the economic consequences of dramatic demographic changes in many developed economies. Interestingly, Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan debunk the idea that climate change will result in a "horde" of up to 200 million "environmental refugees" by 2050. International migration has been historically contemplated only when the socio-economic livelihood of people is severely and permanently impaired and domestic alternatives are exhausted.

Sending countries often benefit paradoxically from skilled emigration to developed countries despite its near-term negative impact. High rate of unemployment among skilled professionals is behind most "brain drain" emanating from developing countries. Increasingly, sending countries view skilled migrants who have worked abroad return home to foster new industries or chart a new political path ("brain circulation"). Think for example about the skilled migrants who return to India after working in the United States for some time. Furthermore, sending countries benefit from the remittances received from their migrants abroad, which represent their largest source of external finance. Think for example about the positive effects of remittances on the Mexican economy. However, the economic effects of remittances on the economies of sending countries should not be unduly exaggerated. Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan conclude by saying that international immigration and remittances significantly reduce the level, depth, and severity of poverty in the developing economies.

The majority of migrants, with the notable exceptions of trafficked people, a.k.a. "modern slaves", and asylum seekers, are economically better off for moving, especially those who move from developing to developed countries. However, Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan note that the wage, education, and healthcare gains experienced by most migrants are qualified by the obstacles that they face in their countries of adoption. Migrants still experience xenophobia and social exclusion in many developed countries, especially when economic crisis or insecurity is gaining in traction. Think for example about what the authors call "downward assimilation," which is particularly noticeable among Latinos in the United States.

Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan expect that international migration will continue its upward trend in the next fifty years due to the following six interrelated factors:
1. Persistent inter-country inequality and wage disparities;
2. Economic growth in the poorest countries;
3. Rural displacement and urbanization;
4. Rising education standards in developing countries;
5. Growing working-age populations in developing countries;
6. Environmental stress.

Simultaneously, growing labor and demographic gaps in many developed countries will pressurize policymakers to bring in more migrants to fill in these gaps. These countries will not be able to meet the growing gaps in their workforces through growth in undocumented migration that has been quietly tolerated. Unfortunately, the authors address nowhere the issue of increasing structural unemployment that exists in many developed economies ("brain waste").

For these reasons, Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan call for a global migration agenda to harness the many benefits of increased migration while minimizing and mitigating its costs. The status quo is deemed not to be sustainable because it is rooted in an antiquated, piecemeal doctrine of national primacy in managing international migration. The authors note that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) does not have the necessary legitimacy, governance, or executive power to change this status quo. The common objection raised against that global migration agenda is that receiving and sending countries are not better off with greater international mobility. Hopefully, Goldin, Cameron, and Balarajan will manage to convince an increasing number of decision-makers that migration is a defining characteristic of human societies and a driving force of global history for the better.

Sorry, did not get beyond 40% of this book, despite trying hard.
There was an endless supply of facts, facts, facts, almost no analysis and no interesting bits really. Most of what is there someone would already know if he/she has read only a little bit about migration. Of course, lots of statistics that I did not know, but few with surprising info. What a pity, because it is such an interesting subject that could have been presented attractively very easily.
I bought this book as it was recommended reading by The Economist. It is even in the list of best reads of 2011. So, won't follow their recommendations blindly anymore.