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The argument for unfettered global migration

29 July 20250 comments

A new book argues that global migration is a driver of prosperity and peace, and has always been essential to the survival of the human species.

Oxford University academic Professor Ian Goldin argues that migration has always been part of the human condition and that people have always migrated to survive.

In his new book, ‘The Shortest History of Migration: When, Why, and How Humans Move-From the Prehistoric Peopling of the Planet to Today and Tomorrow’s Migrants’, Goldin says that humans are a species in motion – from the first steps of Homo sapiens across Africa, to America’s ‘melting pot’ and Australia’s multiculturalism.

Ultimately, he argues that “migration more than repays any initial expense”.

He says countries need to arrive at a ‘migration bargain’ where people’s legitimate concerns about the numbers of migrants are recognised.

“Democratic societies have the right to choose how many people are in our societies. But I think we should admit more. More skilled migrants, more students and some unskilled immigrants as well,” Prof Goldin said.

“But we need to ensure there is a bargain. That they need to abide by the laws of our land, they need to pay taxes, they need to be documented. In return they have rights such as minimum wages, health and safety, and safe passage.

“It is also vital that as part of this bargain, that we clearly distinguish between economic migrants and students that we have the choice on, and refugees who are in legitimate fear of their lives.

“And I think the bargain needs to be between all countries in the world, and particularly between countries that think they are civilised, to have a burden sharing.

“We cannot allow people to die as happened in the Second World War, and in previous periods in history, because there is nowhere safe to go. That’s a question of fairly sharing amongst countries the right of safe passage and asylum processes for people,” he said.

In his book, Prof Goldin writes: “even if you are not a migrant, your ancestors were. If they had not migrated, you would not be alive. It is through migration in the distant past that humans evolved into who we are and what we are capable of today.

“Yet migration has become a source of growing anxiety and polarisation. While some see migrants as a solution to our problems, others consider them a threat that will overwhelm society,” he writes.

Prof Goldin said early humans migrated to escape danger – famine, flood, famine, conflict, and even out of curiosity, and that by about 25,000 years ago, most of the habitable plant was home to human beings.

He said Prof Goldin said countries are a relatively new invention.

“Until the first world war, most of the extent of government control was on people leaving. It was to keep people at home to serve in the military and other services and to ensure they paid tax.

“Entry control, or keeping people out, is only about 120 years old. There was once fierce competition, especially in places like Canada and Australia, for people in the second half of the 19th century.

“In the book I have an image of a Canadian advertising van that was going around in Britian asking people to move to Canada.

“Passports, as we know them today and the rigorous control really only was implemented after the First World War.

Prof Goldin said that strict border controls arose during the war because of a fear of foreigners engendered by the conflict.

“There was also a fear of people subverting economies Then we went into the Great Depression and we had high levels of unemployment – and that has grown,” he said.

“It’s also been, I think, increasingly seen as a political tool. All the evidence, and I muster this in the book, points to the benefits that immigration brings.

“But increasingly, it’s been seen as a threat by many people, by many countries – even those countries that have benefitted most from it.

“You can’t imagine the US today, or Canada, Australia and many places without these successive waves of immigrants that have made them what they are.

“But it is, unfortunately the case that the last one in wants to pull up the drawbridge,” Prof Goldin said.

In the book, he reveals that the number of migrants globally has been rising steadily in recent decades, nearly doubling from 153 million in 1990 to 281 million in 2020. But as a share of the total population, there are not many more migrants today than in the past.

Prof Goldin says the world’s population has increased by almost 30 billion in the past 30 years, meaning that the proportion of people migrating has remained constant. In 2020, about 3.6 per cent of all citizens were born in a foreign country, and 30 years earlier, it was 2.9 per cent.

“It seems that from about 1850 until the First World War much higher numbers of people migrated,” Prof Goldin said.

“For example, well over 20 per cent of the US and Canadian populations at that time were born overseas.

“Half of the populations of Ireland and southern Italy migrated at this time. So, we had much greater movements of people.

“Now only about three percent of populations migrate because it’s tough. You are leaving your community, you are leaving your family and friends.

“Often, you are going to unknown places where you are an outsider. So, its exceptional people who migrate, and it’s also exceptional in the places they go to.”

Prof Goldin said that hostility to migrants had grown since governments in host nations cut back spending on housing and public services.

“So, there’s real pressure on housing affordability on public transport and in waiting lists for public health – and we need to empathise with people about these things.

“So, there’s a sense of there being a fixed set of resources and more and more people competing for them, so the sentiment is ‘let’s keep them out’.

“But it is a fallacious argument for two reasons. One is the immigrants are going to help solve the problem. In the UK we have massive shortages of people such as nurses, doctors, construction workers and others.

“Also, immigrants generate jobs and economic growth. So, the answer is not to be found in ‘let’s keep immigrants out’ but in addressing the real issues such as creating affordable housing, improving transport services and dealing with waiting lists in health services,” Prof Goldin said.

He said that in US the consequences of closing the border with Mexico and reducing migration would be negative in both the short and long term.

“In the short-term, the US will see shortages of key workers in areas like agriculture, home care and construction, leading to higher prices and lower female labour force participation.

“The US will also see productivity losses and the economy slowing down. Migrants are overrepresented in areas driving productivity and innovation. Migrants are three times as likely to open a small business than native person.

“They have double the representation in Nobel Prizes and in patent and innovation data. Migrants are a source of dynamism in an economy,” Prof Goldin said.

The Shortest History of Migration: When, Why, and How Humans Move-From the Prehistoric Peopling of the Planet to Today and Tomorrow’s Migrants, By Ian Goldin, Old Street Publishing, $30.

See an interview with Prof Goldin: Ian Goldin: Could Humans Have Survived Without Migration? | The Agenda – YouTube