Nigel Harris is Professor Emeritus of the economics of the city at University College London. Among his books are Thinking the Unthinkable: the myth of immigration control (2002), and The Return of Cosmopolitan Capital: globalisation, the state and war (2003). This is an extract from The Economic Case for an Open Migration Policy, for the Migration Dialogue of the European Policy Centre and the King Baudouin Foundation, Brussels, in June 2003.

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The controversy over People Flow reflects a major tension of globalisation: between the opening of national economies and restrictions in the world’s labour markets. Government attempts to fix labour movement in static patterns fail to register either migration’s fluid, dynamic aspect or its benign economic effects. The way forward for Europe is to integrate the continent within the evolving world labour market – and move towards free migration and open borders.