Immigration stance marks out limits of advanced countries’ thinking on inequality
Print Edition
FOREIGN VIEWS
Europe’s migration crisis exposes a fundamental flaw in the ongoing debate about economic inequality. Wouldn’t a true progressive support equal opportunity for all people on the planet, rather than just for those of us lucky enough to have been born and raised in rich countries?
Many thought leaders in advanced economies advocate an entitlement mentality. But the entitlement stops at the border: though they regard greater redistribution within individual countries as an absolute imperative, people who live in emerging markets or developing countries are left out.
If current concerns about inequality were cast entirely in political terms, this inward-looking focus would be understandable; after all, citizens of poor countries cannot vote in rich ones. But the rhetoric of the inequality debate in rich countries betrays a moral certitude that ignores the billions of people elsewhere who are far worse off.
One must not forget that even after a period of stagnation, the middle class in rich countries remains an upper class from a global perspective. Only about 15 percent of the world’s population lives in developed economies. Yet advanced countries still account for more than 40 percent of global consumption and resource depletion. Yes, higher taxes on the wealthy make sense as a way to alleviate inequality within a country. But that will not solve the problem of deep poverty in the developing world.
Nor will it do to appeal to moral superiority to justify why someone born in the West enjoys so many advantages.
Exploitative colonialism
Yes, sound political and social institutions are the bedrock of sustained economic growth; indeed, they are the sine qua non of all cases of successful development. But Europe’s long history of exploitative colonialism makes it hard to guess how Asian and African institutions would have evolved in a parallel universe where Europeans came only to trade, not to conquer.
Many broad policy issues are distorted when viewed through a lens that focuses only on domestic inequality and ignores global inequality.
When one weights all of the world’s citizens equally, it’s clear that the same forces of globalization that have contributed to stagnant middle-class wages in rich countries have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty elsewhere. By many measures, global inequality has been reduced over the past three decades.
Freer flows of people
Allowing freer flows of people across borders would equalize opportunities even faster than trade, but resistance is fierce. Anti-immigration political parties have made large inroads in countries like France and the United Kingdom, and are a major force in many other countries as well.
Of course, millions of desperate people who live in war zones and failed states have little choice but to seek asylum in rich countries, whatever the risk.
Economic pressures are another potent force for migration. Workers from poor countries welcome the opportunity to work in advanced countries, even at what seem like rock-bottom wages.
Unfortunately, most of the debate in rich countries today centers on how to keep other people out. That may be practical, but it certainly is not morally defensible.
And migration pressure will increase markedly if global warming unfolds according to climatologists’ baseline predictions.
As equatorial regions become too hot and arid to sustain agriculture, rising temperatures in the north will make agriculture more productive. Shifting weather patterns could then fuel migration to richer countries at levels that make today’s immigration crisis seem trivial.
As the world becomes richer, inequality inevitably will loom as a much larger issue relative to poverty, a point I first argued more than a decade ago. Regrettably, however, the inequality debate has focused so intensely on domestic inequality that the far larger issue of global inequality has been overshadowed.
Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist of the IMF, is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2015.www.project-syndicate.org
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
