I have been a member of the Global Commission on International Migration and our report, several years in the making, will be published soon. The history of our species is the history of the movement of people. People move now for the same reasons they have always moved. They seek more from life, better opportunities for their children, a safer existence; they move out of hope.
In an ideal world, people would move because of choice, not fear.
Not many subjects bring out the worst and best in people the way migration does. Prejudice is not logical, it is emotional - and that is why it is always an election issue, attracting the worst kind of politics.
Economists can prove that a more open labour market would bring great gains in global wealth, as has trade and investment. In fact, up to 200 million people do not live in the country of their birth. But people are not just another product. The issue strikes at the very identity, functionality and reasons for the legitimacy of the nation state.
Social cohesion is a fundamental responsibility of the state, as is the control of borders. Societies and economies that have been open to migration have always done better.
Migrants are worth more to Britain than North Sea oil, and the fastest-growing cities and regions are those which welcome diversity and new ideas - tolerance attracts talent and technology. The history of American economic success is the history of migrants: Andrew Carnegie (steel), Samuel Goldwyn (film), Helena Rubenstein (cosmetics), and so on. Kodak, Atlantic Records, Google, and Intel were all started or co-founded by migrants. One-third of the chief executives of Fortune 500 companies are migrants. More Africans have gone to North America over the past 20 years than in 200 years of slavery.
