The contribution and challenges of ethnic minority businesses in Europe Minority businesses in Europe, of which there at least 800,000, contribute at least €570 billion to the economy and employ at least 2.7 million people, according to OPEN’s pioneering new report with MSDUK. Key findings include: the first-ever list of the top 50 minority businesses in Europe; studies of the contribution of dynamic minority entrepreneurs in the tech, healthcare and …
Continue readingMobility matters
Even in a digital age, trading services often requires people to move too, says Sam Lowe The internet makes the world feel smaller. Gone are the days when sending documents overseas took months, or paying for a 20-minute call to a supplier in the Philippines required taking out a second mortgage. Yet services trade is still constrained by geography – a 10% increase in distance between countries tends to reduce services …
Continue readingThe new global disorder; is Berlin the new London?; year in review
The new global disorder Season two of The Trump Show. Season three of Brexit Breakdown. Part five of Homicide: Australian PM. 2018 has been another eventful year – and not just on Netflix. There’s also an edgy new French drama, Gilets Jaunes. A terrifying new Brazilian telenovela, Comandante Bolsonaro. Meanwhile a long-running German series, the Merkel Mysteries, has been cancelled. And much else besides. Yet when historians look back at 2018, it is likely …
Continue readingMilitarising the US-Mexican border
Plus: the value of asylum seekers; Brexit; after Merkel As so often with Donald Trump, the move is both for show and at the same time deadly serious. Sending up to 15,000 US troops to defend the border with Mexico against an unarmed “caravan” of Central Americans fleeing violence to seek refuge in America is primarily a way of rallying the Republican base for today’s crucial midterm elections. The images …
Continue readingOur open world is under threat; the business case for employing refugees; the new global talent race
Trump. Brexit. Salvini. Trade wars. Border walls. The Great Firewall of China. America First. Italians First. New Zealand First. After decades in which our world has become ever more closely connected as people, products, money and data criss-cross borders ever more intensively, resurgent nationalists now seek to close borders and stamp on difference. It is tragic, though perhaps not surprising, that foreigners are increasingly scapegoated for all manner of primarily domestic problems. Immigrants are …
Continue readingHow do we persuade sceptics of the value of immigration?; overcoming the politics of pessimism
Image thanks to Max Pixel By Philippe Legrain Openness to immigration is a good thing, as I hope you agree. But how can we persuade moderate sceptics? Presenting rational arguments and evidence is important, but often insufficient. As part of its excellent Open Future series, The Economist has published an open essay by Philippe Legrain on this topic. The first part is out today, and the subsequent parts will feature readers’ best …
Continue readingPushing back against anti-immigrant forces; EU democracy; trade wars
For the first time in years, anti-immigrant hardliners in the UK are on the back foot. The Windrush scandal has generated an outpouring of support for people who have contributed so much to Britain for so many years, only to be threatened with deportation by Home Office officials because they couldn’t prove their immigration status – a chilling reminder that without proper safeguards some EU citizens could suffer a similar post-Brexit fate. The new …
Continue readingOPEN briefing: migrants’ right to vote, Brexit blunders, good news on refugees
Nativists are in the ascendant in many countries right now. Governments are responding by curtailing migrants’ rights. And whether it is Brexit Britain or Trump’s America, immigrants are often powerless to fight back. That needs to change. Giving long-term foreign residents the right to vote isn’t just a matter of human rights, it’s about bringing democracy into the 21st century, argues Iana Dreyer in a must-read new piece for OPEN. Electing the people who …
Continue readingIt’s time to give migrants the vote
By Iana Dreyer “No taxation without representation” is a basic democratic principle. Surely that should apply to long-term foreign residents too? The evidence is overwhelming: immigrants generally enrich the countries they move to, both economically and culturally. They do valuable work, start businesses, stimulate innovation, create jobs, pay taxes and boost economic growth – all of which benefits local residents. Why, then, are politicians often so hostile to them? One …
Continue readingWho said populism had peaked? Plus Global Compact, steel tariffs & more
Following the Brexit vote and Trump’s victory in 2016, many feared that a populist wave would sweep through Europe. But with the decisive victory of Emmanuel Macron over Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential election last year, anxiety quickly morphed into complacency. Yet France came perilously close to a presidential run-off between far-right and far-left anti-EU populists. Austria’s election was won by a conservative party that has adopted much of …
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