Immigration—optimistic view

Feelings of anger and hostility towards the immigrants to the Western countries are on the rise now. Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presidential candidate for the 2016 election in the United States, is allegedly adding fuel to the fire in this anti-immigration campaign. Neo-conservatives in the USA and ultra-nationalists in the Western countries are impressed with Trump who has termed immigrants and Muslims the main culprits for all the socio-economic problems in these areas. This is not very surprising as such hostility towards immigrants in the USA is not new. Like many in the past, Trump and his supporters believe immigration doesn't make their country stronger; rather makes it vulnerable and weaker.
This notion, however, has proved wrong many times. Robert Guest, business editor of The Economist, shows that immigration as well as immigrants has made America "richer, more innovative and far more influential". In his book titled 'Borderless Economics', he presents the success stories of immigrants in the developed countries. The writer also backs the fact that immigrants from Asia and Africa to America and Europe have contributed to the advancement of both the host countries and their countries of origin.
Organised in eight main chapters along with an introduction and a conclusion, the writer offers in the book a vivid picture of the diverse works of the immigrants. Terming the activities of migrants 'migrationmics', he argues, "Migration is by far the most powerful weapon in the struggle against global poverty." p-10 He substantiates the argument by saying that when workers cross the border, their prospects also are transformed. He observes that it takes a lot of courage and energy to leave a place where one has grown up and where everything is familiar. "So, migrants tend to be strivers, doers and   risk-takers. Everywhere they go, they are disproportionately likely to start business or make new discoveries." p-16  
Robert Guest presents in lucid style numerous tales of immigrants, mostly from China and India, to validate his arguments. Or to put it in a different way, the stories of the immigrants lead him to conclude that migration eradicates poverty significantly. He has travelled extensively in four continents for his professional work of news reporting and it has provided him with the opportunity to closely watch the migrants and their families.
On reading the book, readers will be able to learn how Chinese migrants are contributing to the introduction of democratic practices in their homeland, where the grip of the communist party is still very tight. There are the success stories centring on the innovation by talented Chinese migrants like Robin Lee and Eric Xu who returned to China in 2000 to set up Baidu, a kind of Chinese version of Google.  Or, take the instance of Indian migrants as they have stories no less encouraging than that of the Chinese. There is Nandan Nilekani, an Indian software billionaire, who extended his support to the Indian government in developing the biometric identity system. He was spontaneously backed by some other Indian-origin engineers based in the US Silicon Valley.   
Robert Guest has detected that the strength the migrants of a particular country enjoy is their "networks outside the control of state". At the same time, he challenges the effectiveness of many conventional and unconventional tools of poverty reduction. His criticism of microcredit is interesting. "When people try to think of way to ease global poverty, they seldom mention migration. They tend to instead think of things like microcredit. There is nothing wrong with microcredit (the lending of small sums of money to poor entrepreneurs). It has lifted many people out of poverty, which is why Mohammad Yunus, whose Grameen Bank pioneered this approach in Bangladesh, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Yet, as Mr. Pritchett points out, the average gain from a lifetime of microcredit in Bangladesh is about the same as the gain from eight weeks working in the United States. After doing a quick calculation of   the total benefit that Grameen Bank confers on its clients, he asks, mischievously: "If I get 3,000 Bangladeshi workers into the US, do I get the Nobel Peace Prize?"" p-126
According to Guest, "In Bangladesh, a country that sends many   construction workers to oil sheikhdoms, families that receive remittances typically rely on them for half their income. One study found that a 10 percent increase in remittances per head can lead to a 3.5 percent drop in the share of the population who are poor." p-117 He argues that immigrants take their skills with them when they leave home, but the money they send back helps others learn. "It does so directly, when it is spent on school fees, and it does so indirectly, when it puts food on a family's table." p-117
The writer has focused in detail on the USA as it is the most desired destination for the migrants from across the world. He also tries to explain why the country would remain number one. He says: "America's global network is unlike any other. The United States does not have much of a diaspora, since native-born Americans seldom emigrate permanently. But since the country has the world's largest stock of immigrants, it can plug into all the world's tribal and religious network." p-181
 In fact, the author has great confidence in America's democratic values --- the country where debate is free, intellectual exercise enjoys a favourable atmosphere, where academics are well paid and where universities work hand in glove with industry. And he finds it to be a win-win situation for the country and the migrants.
He cautions that the country's soft power, a persuasive approach to international relations involving the use of economic or cultural influence and not hard power or force, was undermined due to anti-immigrant attitude. He says: "The biggest threat to American soft power is the backlash against immigration. Thanks to the networks created by immigration, America is richer, more innovative and far more influential than it would otherwise be. Yet these advantages could be all frittered away if the nation were to close its borders." p-203
In fact, in the book Robert Guest has made the cases for more flexibility for the migrants especially in the US. He has also put forward a few recommendations favouring migration from the poor countries to the rich ones for a greater harmonious world. When the long established things in many parts of the world are falling apart, with migrants from the trouble-torn regions facing tough time in the developed world, the book might appear too much optimistic to many.  
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Borderless Economics
By Robert Guest
Palgrave Macmillan,
New York, 2011
Pages 250