America, Britain and Germany became richer by importing people, skills, ideas and ambition. The real migration scandal is how quickly we forget it.

One of the strangest things about today’s migration “debate” is that some of the countries that have benefited most from immigration now seem determined to portray it as a national catastrophe.

History tells a rather different story. I was reminded of this recently while reading about Malacca, one of the great trading cities of Southeast Asia.

Malacca did not become rich despite the Gujaratis, Chinese, Arabs, Persians, Tamils, Javanese, Sumatrans and Malays who converged there. It became rich precisely because they converged there.

People arrived carrying far more than labour. They brought languages, skills, capital, technologies, religions, recipes, commercial contacts and different ways of solving problems.

Put enough different networks into the same place and interesting things start to happen. History is full of cities like this: Alexandria, Constantinople, Venice, Amsterdam, London, New York, Singapore. Yet we cling to the curious idea that successful nations were once culturally pure places which  became diluted by foreigners. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Continue reading “Migrants Built the West. Now We Blame Them.”