paul collier | Pandaemonium

IN DEFENCE OF DIVERSITY

November 25, 2013 by Kenan Malik

There has recently been built in Merton in south London a ‘mega mosque’ that has inevitably become the focus of much controversy. In his book The British Dream, David Goodhart, director of the centre-left think tank Demos, takes the mosque as symbolic of the unacceptable change that immigration has wrought upon the nation. The mosque, he writes, ‘replaced an Express Dairies bottling plant which provided a few hundred jobs for local people and lots of milk bottles — an icon […]

Categories: Race & Immigration • Tags: christopher caldwell, cultural diversity, david goodhart, fortress europe, identity politics, immigration, jews, lampedusa, paul collier, racism, robert putnam, working class

TRUST IN A DIVERSE SOCIETY

November 4, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Sociologists have traditionally thought about the consequences of ethnic diversity in one of two ways. The ‘conflict’ model claims that the more that diverse groups interact, the more social tension there will be. The ‘contact’ model, on the other hand, suggests that the more that different groups interact, the less they will fear each other. Unsurprisingly the first model is favoured by conservatives to justify restrictions on immigration, while liberals often call on the second in arguing for multicultural education. […]

Categories: Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: cultural diversity, david goodhart, diversity, immigration, london, migration, multiculturalism, paul collier, robert putnam, social cohesion, trust

THE NOT-SO-SECRET HISTORY OF CAPITALISM

October 20, 2013 by Kenan Malik

This is a coda to my review of Paul Collier’s book Exodus. In Exodus, Collier makes a case for restrictions on immigration, from the perspective both of the countries of origin and of the host countries to which they migrate. In my review I questioned the moral and social arguments that Collier employs to justify his arguments, and suggested that ‘there is often a chasm between that evidence and Collier’s more contentious arguments’, while many of his policy prescriptions ‘are […]

Categories: History • Tags: capitalism, eric williams, frantz fanon, imperialism, paul collier, poverty, progress, racism, robin blackburn, slavery, working class

MIGRATION AND MORALITY

October 5, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Review of Exodus by Paul Collier (Allen Lane) Migration, Paul Collier observes ‘affects many groups, but only one has the practical power to control it: the indigenous population of host societies.’ So, he asks, ‘Should that group act in its self-interest, or balance the interests of all groups?’. That question is at the heart of Collier’s new book which aims to reframe the immigration debate. Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and co-Director […]

Categories: Race & Immigration • Tags: diversity, exodus, immigration, migration, multiculturalism, paul collier, racism, robert putnam