Philippe Legrain, who despite his first name is apparently British not French, is an economist/journalist who offers a perspective on immigration that you don’t hear lately. The case against immigration in the US is based on fear, and racisim/xenophobia, covered in a veneer of economic half-truths. Legrain spent six months researching immigration policies, and his book on the subject has been nominated for Financial Times/Goldman Sacks Business Book of the Year Award. Melissa Lafsy interviews him on The Case for Open Immigration: A Q&A With Philippe Legrain:
Those who claim that tougher laws and restrictions could stop immigration are peddling a false prospectus. Even if, at a huge cost, the U.S. built a wall along its vast border with Mexico, deployed an armada to patrol its shores, searched every arriving vehicle and vessel, denied visas altogether to people from developing countries, and enforced stringent internal checks on people’s right to remain here, migrants would get through — documents can be forged or stolen, people smuggled, officials bribed. And by trying to protect the country from the phantom menace of immigration, officials could end up turning the U.S. into a police state.