One of the contributors to the MigrantVoice roundtable last week asked where were the writers and commentators who could make an impact on this debate on sanctuary or refuge - "There is no-one to speak with confidence and charisma on immigration and asylum issues. Very, very rarely does it happen."
Today's MigrantVoice authors - Philippe Legrain and Irshad Manji - might well qualify. I was particularly struck by Philippe's question: "Since governments conspire to deny people the right to cross borders freely, is pretending to be a refugee really so terrible?" and by Irshad's thought that perhaps the Statue of Liberty should be sent back to France.
To put it mildly, "parental choice" in education has been an oft-repeated mantra for our Labour Government, but I wonder how many parents wooed by this phrase have been prompted to choose diversity.
Yet if Legrain is to be believed in today's article, it is more than anything else diversity that makes for smartness and innovation, and anyone who really cares about the future of Britain should be urging that choice on us above all others. This connects with what I was trying to articulate about the nonsense of people being frightened off precisely the encounter with "difference" in an era of globalisation. But as Legrain points out, it is not just the decisive impact of diverse experience and thought on culture he is talking about, but on the economy, stupid. Of course, were Gordon Brown to diverge thus far from his predecessor on education, he would come slap bang up against his own immigration policies - at least those concerning immigration control.
Diversity and its transformative economic power is also Irshad Manji's concern in her article published today - "For a future bigger than our past". The founder of an aptly named Moral Courage project in New York University has some home truths for us Europeans that - who knows? - may well be related to our increasing discovery that we would rather not be Europeans... Identity protectionism doesn't seem to have much going for it.
Speaking of Europe, there was a demonstration planned for yesterday in front of the London office of the European Commission against the European Return Directive, or "directive de la honte" as the 1,000 or so protesters in Paris last Thursday refer to it. How did it go? I'm ashamed to say that I am not sure where the London office of the European Commission is...
