by Lant Pritchett
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Product Description
In this bound-to-be controversial book, Lant Pritchett argues that irresistible demographic forces leading to greater international labor mobility are being checked by immovable anti-immigration ideas of the citizens of rich countries. He proposes breaking the deadlock through policies that support development while also being politically acceptable in those well-off nations. These include reliance on bilateral rather than multilateral agreements; greater use of temporary worker permits; permit rationing; and protection of migrants' fundamental human rights.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Fabulous, 2008-09-11
This is a very compelling book from Mr. Pritchett. While he makes plenty of great economic arguments for freer migration policies, the one that has remained with me is the moral argument.
He points out our "Moral Perfectionism based on Proximity", and how ridiculous it is to believe that we should have different moral standards of behavior toward others based on where they were born.
A great book - I'm not an economist, and found it very accessible, while still full of information and great argument.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Forceful, 2008-08-21
This book is primarily written for economists and academics in related fields, but most of it can be understood by an average person.
I was a little hesitant to read this book because I suspected it would do little more than reinforce my existing beliefs. There were certainly parts of the book that I would have been better off skipping for that reason.
But one important effect of the book was to convince me that the effects on the poor of migration to wealthier countries is so large compared to things like "foreign aid" and free trade that anyone trying to help the poor by influencing government policies shouldn't spend any time thinking about how to improve "foreign aid" or trade barriers.
I've long been wondering how to respond to remarks such as Jimmy Carter's 'We are the stingiest nation of all' based the U.S.'s low "foreign aid" to GDP ratio. Pointing out that "foreign aid" is mostly wasted or even harmful requires too much analysis of lots of not-too-strong evidence. Pritchett shows that the wealth affects of allowing the poor to work in rich countries should dominate any measure of how those rich countries treat the poor. By that measure, adjusting for country size, the U.S. ranks better than countries in the EU, but is embarrassingly callous compared to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Jordan.
The book addresses both moral and selfish arguments for restricting immigration. It treats the selfish arguments (even those based on myths) as problems that can't be overcome, but which can be reduced via compromises. These pragmatic parts of the book are too ordinary to be worth much.
The sections about moral arguments are more powerful. He clearly demonstrates a large blind spot in the moral vision of those who think they're opposed to all discrimination but who aren't offended by discrimination on the basis of the nationality a person was assigned at birth. But he exaggerates when he claims that nationality is the only exception to a widely agreed on outrage at discrimination based on "condition of birth". Discrimination based on date of birth still gets wide support (e.g. the drinking age). And if you're born as a conjoined twin, don't expect much protection from surgery that looks about as moral as brain surgery designed to cure a child's homosexuality should.
Perhaps this book is one small step toward creating a movement with a slogan such as "Tear down that kinder, gentler Berlin wall!".
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The best way to help the worlds poorest people, 2008-03-22
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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