Philippe Legrain

A great article by Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist, in today’s Times (and not just because he very kindly quotes Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them). As he rightly says: Immigration is an issue on which all three main British parties are on the defensive and hence illiberal. This is an emerging tragedy for a country […]

The United States imported $2.7bn worth of the steel pipe used in oil and natural gas production in 2008, making it the highest-value US trade injury case on record. But because of slumping demand and US duties already imposed in the case, imports of the product from China fell last year to about $1.1bn. Now […]

A truly excellent article. Excerpts On currency manipulation: The US treasury has been charged by Congress to assess whether China is a “currency manipulator”. Although President Barack Obama has now delayed for some months when the treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, must issue his report, the very concept of “currency manipulation” itself is flawed: all governments […]

Eight years after China’s WTO accession, many US industries complain that they face significant non-tariff barriers to trade… These barriers include, for example, regulations that set high thresholds for entry into service sectors such as banking, insurance and telecommunications . . . and the use of questionable sanitary and phytosanitary measures to control import volumes. Sounds a lot like […]

on the benefits of immigration: All these kids are American high school students. They were the majority of the 40 finalists in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search, which, through a national contest, identifies and honors the top math and science high school students in America, based on their solutions to scientific problems. The awards […]

The US government's much-touted E-Verify programme for detecting whether workers are authorised to work in the US detects fewer than half of illegal workers, while initially rejecting some legal workers.  Technology is not a quick fix for the political problem of what to do with 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US.

The New York Times reports that: about 226,000 fewer people emigrated from Mexico to other countries during the year that ended in August 2008 than during the previous year, a decline of 25 percent. All but a very small fraction of emigration, both legal and illegal, from Mexico is to the United States. Opponents of […]

Our biggest domestic menace never was waiting outside Home Depot, hoping to clean your basement. Unauthorized immigrants are not about to destroy anything, not even when they get angry and loud and march in large groups. On the contrary, they are inspiring. Their ethic of self-reliance and hard work is one that Americans should recognize […]

As more Americans lose their jobs, the U.S. government is actively discouraging the recruitment of foreign workers, from dude ranchers and fruit pickers to lifeguards and computer programmers. Full article in WSJ. In the NYT, Casey Mulligan points out how that preventing foreigners working to save American jobs is as absurd as the "marriage bars" […]

After the Omnibus Appropriations Bill signed into law by President Obama scrapped a pilot programme that allowed a small number of Mexican trucking companies to carry cargoes north of the border – as NAFTA requires – Mexico has responded by slapping tariffs of up to 45% on 90 American agricultural and industrial imports. Renault is […]

Hispanic immigrants who work in construction, hotels and other blue-collar jobs have suffered from the brutal economic climate. But immigrant gardeners appear to be weathering the harsh conditions well. "Gardening isn't like working at a factory, where you depend on one employer," says Manuel Quezada, a 54-year-old veteran gardener, as he and his team put […]

What do you get when you mix inhumanity with bureaucratic targets? Immigration raids that make up the numbers by rounding up the easiest targets rather than the most dangerous fugitives. The New York Times reports that: Federal immigration officials had repeatedly told Congress that among more than half a million immigrants with outstanding deportation orders, […]

As the era of the dark side recedes a little, my sense of the looming reality is as follows. The men who ordered a man tied to a chair, doused in water, and chilled to hypothermia so intense he had to be rushed to emergency medical care, the men who presided over at least two […]

In recent years, Western governments have voiced concerns about Asian governments’ vast sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) investing in Western companies. Some called this "investment protectionism" But as Western banks faced collapse, they were delighted to receive capital injections from Asian SWFs – and Western governments didn’t object. In a crisis, needs must. Now, though, Asia’s […]

For years, the US has lectured China on how it should run its economy. Now, the tables are turned. US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson went to Beijing to urge the Chinese government not to let its currency weaken. The Chinese hit back in style. Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the Chinese central bank, urged the US […]

Now, the United States tried a fiscal stimulus in early 2008; both the Bush administration and congressional Democrats touted it as a plan to "jump-start" the economy. The actual results were, however, disappointing, for two reasons. First, the stimulus was too small, accounting for only about 1 percent of GDP. The next one should be […]

The latest Transatlantic Trends survey of attitudes towards immigration in America and Europe finds that 47% of Europeans and 50% of Americans think immigration is more of a problem than an opportunity. But young Europeans (aged 18-34) are much more positive about immigration than older ones. In both the US and Europe, the better educated […]

The upside: Many Republican anti-immigration extremists will no longer be members of the incoming House of Representatives. Nine or 10 have lost their seats; their leader, Tom Tancredo, is retiring, as is Duncan Hunter. The downside: Leading reform advocate Ted Kennedy is fighting cancer, and John McCain watered down his reform commitment during his election […]

The doubts are over: Obama has won. What a great day! Not just for Americans, but for the whole world. He was the right choice, not because of the colour of his skin, but because of the content of his character. The many Europeans who are snooty about the US should ask themselves: in which […]

Undocumented immigrants in the US can no longer get mortgages – even though their default rates are low. Previously, established migrants could get mortgages with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, but now they need a US Social Security number. "If you want to buy a house and you’re here without papers, now you can forget […]