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What Lant Pritchett thinks about immigration

@lant-pritchett · 14 positions · 0 changes of mind

Development economist. Research director of RISE at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, formerly of the World Bank and the Harvard Kennedy School, and a founder of Labor Mobility Partnerships. He argues that letting people move across borders is the largest unexploited gain in global welfare, and that rich-country aid agencies have quietly abandoned the goal of making poor countries prosperous.

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5 dated positions, 2023, in their own words. Our reading of what Lant Pritchett has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingPublic hostility to immigration comes from fusing “who may work here” with “who becomes one of us”, and separating the two dissolves it.

    Their wordsWhen you separate those two questions in public dialogue, the negative attitudes disappear.

    ↗Lant Pritchett, economist: ‘Negativity around migration is the last breath of a moribund system’english.elpais.com 2nd of 8 in this piece

    Interesting

  3. Our readingImmigration policy should run on three separate tracks: future citizens, people allowed to work, and people admitted out of necessity.

    Their wordsGovernments should create three tracks for people who come to live in their country. One track is that of people who hope to become Spanish. Another is that of those who we are going to allow to live and work here; the third is that of those of we are going to allow to be in Spain out of necessity.

    ↗Lant Pritchett, economist: ‘Negativity around migration is the last breath of a moribund system’english.elpais.com 3rd of 8 in this piece

    Interesting

  5. Our readingAnti-immigration parties gain ground by generating fear, not by winning the argument about what immigration does.

    Their wordsThe thing about the far-right parties is that they are trying to get people to equate all foreigners in a country with a threat to our future, but they are only gaining ground because of their ability to generate fear.

    ↗Lant Pritchett, economist: ‘Negativity around migration is the last breath of a moribund system’english.elpais.com 5th of 8 in this piece

    Interesting

  7. Our readingWithout immigrants Spain’s labour force falls from 22.6 to 15.7 million by 2050, far too few to run its economy.

    Their wordsIn the absence of immigrants, between 2020 and 2050 Spain’s labor force (its active population) will drop from 22.6 to 15.7 million people. You’re not going to fill all the jobs needed in a modern and sophisticated economy like that of Spain’s with 15.7 million people.

    ↗Lant Pritchett, economist: ‘Negativity around migration is the last breath of a moribund system’english.elpais.com 7th of 8 in this piece

    Interesting

  9. Our readingMigrants filling low-skill jobs in rich countries take nobody’s job, because the native workforce is shrinking faster than those jobs are appearing.

    Their wordsAccording to my numbers, in the United States there will be a net of 3.24 million new low-skill jobs, but there will also be 4.7 million fewer people in the labor force.

    ↗Lant Pritchett, economist: ‘Negativity around migration is the last breath of a moribund system’english.elpais.com 8th of 8 in this piece

    America

    Interesting