Is the global crisis an opportunity for tighter immigrant restrictions?
Immigration to the rich countries of the OECD has been on the rise for more than three decades. And now we have a global recession that looks much like the beginning of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Public opinion across the OECD was, on balance, in favour of tighter restrictions on immigration even before the recession arrived. And in contrast to trade policy, which is regulated by international WTO agreements, there are no impediments to unilateral action on immigration policy. Could the global recession provide just the political impetus needed to convert this latent anti-immigrant sentiment into much more restrictive immigration laws? If the average host country voter wants tighter immigration policies, politicians might seize the opportunity to insulate the country from future immigration threats. The longer and deeper is the recession, the more likely is a worldwide immigration policy backlash. Perhaps, but there are reasons to think that the backlash will not be as sharp as
