Migration: for better or worse? A public debate
The movement of people around the world is an age-old phenomenon – one that has ensured that humans has spread to all continents on Earth, and with with them, skills and new ideas.
Today populations are on the move as never before and divisions have intensified between those who open their arms to migrants and welcome the contributions they make, and those who believe that unrestricted migration could have an adverse economic and social impact on settled communities
Journalist and author Guy Arnold has done a comprehensive survey of the consequences of migration in his book Migration – Changing the World. He has studied both the massive internal migrations in China and India that drive economic development and the influx of cheap labour into the advanced economies of the USA and Europe.
Arnold argues that migrants are essential to advanced countries, filling skills gaps and bolstering aging and static populations, asserting that the constant flow of people in all directions should be welcomed as a positive assault on outdated, narrow nationalism.
His presentation at this event will be followed by comments from a panel of leading experts on international migration who will also examine the downside of unrestricted migration.
Date: Wednesday 20 June 2012. Time: 6.30 – 8 p.m.
Venue: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Room, Palace of Westminister, London
Chair
Patsy Robertson, Director, Ramphal Institute
Panellists:
Guy Arnold, author, Migration – Changing the World
Keith Best, Chief Executive, Freedom from Torture; former Chief Executive of Immigrations Advisory Service
Professor Nigel Harris, Economist and former senior policy consultant to the European Policy Centre, in Brussels, on international migration; chair, RSA Migration Commission
Alp Mehmet, vice-chair, Migration Watch UK
Virendra Sharma, MP Ealing Southall; chair Indo-British All-Party Parliamentary Group
Danny Sriskandarajah, Director, Royal Commonwealth Society
Book details: Migration – Changing the World, by Guy Arnold, Pluto Press 2012, ISBN 978-0-7453-2906-2 (hardback), 978-0-7453-2905-5 (paperback)
