Review: Roundtable Discussion on Immigration Governance
July 16, 2019
On 26 June, LSE Alumni met to discuss one of the most topical issues in Europe today in a lively roundtable discussion regarding immigration policy. Justin Gest, LSE Alumnus and an Associate Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, started the event with presenting research from his latest book with Anna Boucher “Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change (Cambridge University Press 2018)“.
Having analysed 30 countries, he has developed a statistical model to identify seven global migration governance regimes. He concluded that the Market Model of immigration governance is emerging globally with three key characteristics:
- Lower naturalisation rates of immigrants;
- Focus on labour type of migration;
- Temporary nature of migrant stay.
The explanations for this shift include the converging with the ‘Uberisation’ of many jobs, rise in populism which polarises politics, as well as fear of Muslims and terrorism.
A number of very insightful comments emerged from the subsequent exchange of ideas, including:
- Europe could be classified as a ‘market-light’ model region for now, yet is also moving in the direction of the Market Model.
- This model can be considered bad because short-term migration harms prospects of integration, language learning, innovation and entrepreneurship of migrants.
- Control of migration is needed. Still, it is possible and needed to combine such control with high migration rates. Furthermore, development aid for countries of immigrant origin is crucial.
- Interestingly, most important countries of migrant origin are not the poorest but rather middle-income, and most migrants have mid-level educational attainment.
To further explore this issue, we recommend you to read two recent publications by Professor Gest:
