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How Migration Is Changing Our World and
Why We Have to Regulate it Differently
Chipping away at the many misconceptions surround-
ing migration is just a first step toward finding viable
solutions to this highly charged topic. This was one of
the main insights of this year’s podium, which took
place in Zurich on April 10, 2017.
Following the publication of his book
Exodus: How
migration is changing our world,
Sir Paul Collier
believed his home country, the UK, was mature
enough for a rational discussion about migration. “But
I was wrong,” he adds at the opening of his keynote
address on migration for this year’s Podium discussion.
Migration is arguably one of the defining issues of our
age, but has becoming increasingly confused and
conflated with similar but unrelated matters. Migrants
are not refugees, explained Collier: migrants move out
of hope for a better life and improved economic pros-
pects to a country of their choosing. Refugees, by
contrast, are compelled to leave against their will and
are often received by reluctant hosts forcing both
parties into an uneasy cohabitation. And while there is
a moral duty and obligation to help refugees, there is
no automatic or moral right to migrate. People migrate
out of self-interest, and this creates so-called “exter-
nalities,” both in the countries they move to, but even
more so in their countries of origin.
Brain drain vs brain gain
While international trade is governed by what we call
“comparative advantage,” i.e. it benefits both sides,
migration is usually an example of absolute advantage,
in which the beneficiary is almost always the migrant’s
adopted home, to the detriment of their native land.
Africa hemorrhages skilled labor and suffers capital
Dialogue and Events
Podium
outflows of USD 200bn per annum, twice the amount
it receives in aid. At one point, there were more Suda-
nese doctors in London than in Sudan. A Nigerian
engineer chooses to work as a cab driver in New York
because he can earn more than as an engineer in
Nigeria. The engineer accepts a loss of status, while
Nigeria loses valuable skills. Haiti loses 85% of its
young educated people, a devastating loss to an al-
ready impoverished country. EU expansion has led to
greater economic divergence between eastern and
western Europe. And yet, most of these losses of vital
skills and human resources produce a rise in global
GDP, proving what a hopelessly misleading measure of
growth GDP is, says Collier.
And what is the impact on the adopted nation? Con-
trary to popular perception it is more social than
economic, says Collier.
It makes it less likely that higher earners are willing to
make financial sacrifices to help the more disadvan-
taged members of their own society. In order to pre-
serve social and cultural cohesion, migration needs to
be controlled and managed effectively at both ends.
Migrants must be absorbed into a shared and common
identity, and that means the rate of migration should
never exceed the rate of integration, says Collier.
Finding a balance between migration and integration
in the adoptive countries and a balance between brain
drain and brain gain in the countries of origin would
produce a fair and sustainable approach to migration
globally, argues Collier. But this requires a willingness
to move beyond the emotive and politically charged
rhetoric that surrounds this subject. We need to start
measuring the impacts of migration in a way that can
help us develop policies to control and manage the
process to benefits all sides.
“There is evidence that exces-
sive, uncontrolled migration
reduces social cohesion.”
Professor Collier is one of the leading experts on migration.
You will find more pictures, video recordings, and
media coverage of the Podium on our website.
www.ubscenter.uzh.ch