Philippe Legrain And David Goodhart's Too Diverse?: Article Analysis

Philippe Legrain and David Goodhart
examine the emerging issue of immigration. Despite the fact that they discuss the same topic, it is not easy to compare and contrast their ideas, since they look at different aspects. Legrain in his The Case for Immigration supports immigration arguing mostly from the economic standpoint. In contrast, Goodhart’s article Too Diverse? questions advantages of immigration given ambiguous effect on host nation, its culture, and history. Given that the authors’ views are built on different arguments, it is not surprising that they come to opposing conclusions in their works. A reader needs to juxtapose and analyze both articles in order to form an accurate opinion on the topic of immigration.
Legrain is a strong
They both have failed to consider some factors that could affect the perception of immigration. Firstly, looking at the problem from different standpoints Goodhart and Legrain did not examine each other’s arguments. The former should have included more information on the economic effects of the immigration. A thorough review and discussion of this aspect could significantly strengthen Goodhart’s article. At the same time, Legrain almost completely ignored the cultural and social sides of the question. Similarly, that could make his work more balanced. Moreover, both authors have not considered the public attitude to immigration. This is also a major factor influencing migrants’ lives both directly and through government policies. Another major point is discrimination against migrants. Due to their weak legal status those workers have much less rights than natives. For example, illegal migrants hardly ever can form or become members of unions. As a result, employers can potentially exploit this and take advantage. Finally, current problem of refugees in Europe has shown that one country cannot address this problem alone. Goodhart and Legrain could have included their thoughts on such massive influx of migrants. Overall, this issue is controversial and complex one. More comprehensive research and analysis is required for accurate review of immigration and its