Immigrants: your country needs them

The movement of people across borders is the essence of globalisation and increasingly important to the growth of the economy. But immigration is becoming an ever more contentious issue, in Europe as well as in other parts of the world. The United States has built a fence on its southern borders to stop people from unsolicited entry. In Europe newspapers carry headlines of immigrants stealing jobs and abusing benefit systems. The two recent enlargements of the European Union have involved special rules prohibiting citizens in new member states to move as freely as other European citizens.

This is the backdrop to a new book by Philippe Legrain – Immigrants: your country needs them. Legrain, a best-selling author and former journalist at The Economist, makes a compelling case for freer migration that binds together scholarly studies with individual stories of migration.

You are cordially invited to a Book Forum with Philippe Legrain. Legrain's presentation will be followed by comments from Stefano Bertozzi, member of Commissioner Franco Frattini's Cabinet, and Fredrik Erixon, a Director of ECIPE.