Total Rethink

23The Power of Immigration

“If you go back to 1800 everybody was poor. I mean everybody. The Industrial Revolution kicked in, and a lot of countries benefited, but by no means everyone.”

—Bill Gates

In 2016 the total of displaced people was 65 million, mostly by war but also by national disasters and economic circumstances. That's around two people for every second of the year. It is possibly the biggest issue and potential threat to world peace and to continued prosperity, but not because of the immigrants themselves.

The rise of nationalism in the West has been partly fueled by a short-term fear of the numbers of immigrants arriving in search of work or shelter, but as I mentioned earlier, in the long term these people are the most motivated workers in the world and the most likely to create beneficial changes wherever they settle. They are our greatest hope for creating a revolution that will ensure a prosperous future for all. They are the ones most likely to be able to narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots, through creative entrepreneurship and relentless execution.

These are the people who are willing to smuggle themselves across the Mexican border into America in the dead of night, or cross an ocean in an overcrowded dinghy which is extremely likely to sink, in order to start a new life in a European country that is apparently hostile to their arrival, where they don't speak the language or have any family network to fall back on for support. They are the ...