Book Review: Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron, Meera Balarajan (2011), Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future

• Authors: Radomska Małgorzata
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The aim of this publication is to contribute towards the contemporary discourse on migration policy and to put it in a wider, historical and international context. The point of departure for the analysis is to what extent the increase in international migration flows is to be seen as ‘undesirable’. The main thesis of the book is that advantages of migration outweigh its disadvantages. As Goldin, Cameron and Balarajan show, migration laid out foundations for major civilisations, it links labour markets, has a positive impact on the global economy and contributes to social diversity in receiving states. Moreover, as the authors predict, in the coming decades the West will need migrants more than ever before. Published in the years of the economic crisis, the books tries to allay the fears of the increased immigration in contemporary societies, as well as to inform the reader about the misconceptions and fears about the consequences of immigration. It offers a broad analysis of migration movements, put in a long-term historical perspective.

• Publisher: Ośrodek Badań nad Migracjami Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego oraz Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Central and Eastern European Migration Review
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 124-126

Contributors

author

Radomska Małgorzata

• Sciences Po - Paris

References

• Christiane Harzig, Dirk Hoerder, Donna Gabaccia (2009). What is Migration History. Malden Mass.: Polity Press.
• Dirk Hoerder (2002). Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millenium. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Patrick Manning (2005). Migration in World History. London: Routledge.