Post by cleefarqhuar on Dec 14, 2014 18:30:00 GMT
Here is Professor Sir Paul Collier, eminent development economist and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Oxford. He set out his stall in his recent book Exodus: How Migration is Changing Our World - praised by David Goodhart and panned by Kenan Malik - and repeated many of its key messages to an uncomprehending Evan Davis on Newsnight this last Thursday*.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04v3452
Those messages included:
1 Discussion of the economic effects of immigration are pointless - it has a zero or even negative effect upon our economy, it is the long-term social effects that are important
2 A little diversity is OK but too much brings with it a 'dark side' (but we all know this already, don't we? Professor Putnam of Harvard told us this years ago)
3 Immigration results in loss of social capital, manifested by less generosity in terms of being willing to share the benefits of the welfare state, lower levels of trust in society and the creation of oppositional identities. (See Professor Putnam)
4 Most immigration is still from outside the EU and it is totally within the government's power to restrict that to the extent required (oh yes - do you hear Mr Cameron - no ifs, no buts)
5 Most EU immigration is driven by wage differentials which are amplified through subsidies to employers in the form of in-work social benefits
6 The presence of diaspora lowers the cost of being an immigrant and this is an issue that needs to critically addressed (in practical terms our Pakistani 'community' is growing ever larger)
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04v3452
Those messages included:
1 Discussion of the economic effects of immigration are pointless - it has a zero or even negative effect upon our economy, it is the long-term social effects that are important
2 A little diversity is OK but too much brings with it a 'dark side' (but we all know this already, don't we? Professor Putnam of Harvard told us this years ago)
3 Immigration results in loss of social capital, manifested by less generosity in terms of being willing to share the benefits of the welfare state, lower levels of trust in society and the creation of oppositional identities. (See Professor Putnam)
4 Most immigration is still from outside the EU and it is totally within the government's power to restrict that to the extent required (oh yes - do you hear Mr Cameron - no ifs, no buts)
5 Most EU immigration is driven by wage differentials which are amplified through subsidies to employers in the form of in-work social benefits
6 The presence of diaspora lowers the cost of being an immigrant and this is an issue that needs to critically addressed (in practical terms our Pakistani 'community' is growing ever larger)