How Migration Really Works

We need much more rigorous scholarship and level-headed analysis of global migration trends -- and this exhaustive new book by Hein de Haas is a great place to start. At this urgent moment in Western political tensions over migration, he provides remarkable clarity and guidance on how to better navigate the pressing social and economic challenges ahead

Dr. Parag Khanna, author of MOVE: Where People are Going for a Better Future

A careful, balanced, and convincing take on one of the most divisive issues of our age. Backed by masses of data, Hein de Haas challenges much of what we think is obvious about migration, systematically busting myths and exposing propaganda from all across the political spectrum

Ian Morris, author of Why The West Rules – For Now

What if the central assumptions of the migration debate were plainly false? Hein de Haas challenges common myths about migration, defying orthodoxy on all sides of the debate, and bringing measured and thoughtful analysis to a vitriolic and polarized issue. How Migration Really Works is a necessary read for anyone interested in migration

Yascha Mounk, author of The Identity Trap

Packed with information, How Migration Really Works is destined to become a major reference work in the field of migration studies. In a combative style, de Haas takes on the many myths about migration promoted by multiple actors, including international organizations and governments. It is a book worth arguing with

Alejandro Portes, author of Emerging Global Cities

Immigration has been a leading political issue for decades. Yet the debate has been a triumph of feelings over facts. This brilliant book sheds light on a topic that will only become more relevant in the years ahead

Aaron Bastani

A book that will force Left and Right alike to reconsider old assumptions . . . [De Haas's] insights hold the key to effective migration policy . . . An important book, which should become a standard textbook for anyone seeking to have a real impact on migration

Baroness Arminka Helic, The Telegraph

A convincing argument that most of what we believe about immigration is wrong . . . A vital, page-turning education

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

A powerful debunking of myths about global migration, and an indictment of the political dishonesty that generates them . . . a clear and rigorous corrective that aims to give the general reader the tools for a more informed debate in future

Daniel Trilling, Guardian

Prepare to have your mind changed . . . de Haas shows that everything we think we know about migration is wrong. How Migration Really Works is a carefully evidenced critique . . . I am rereading this book (something crabbed reviewers never normally do)

Simon Ings, New Scientist

This new study of migration and its attendant myths should be falling out of briefcases all over Westminster

Serena Cesareo, Tortoise Media

De Haas deftly fillets the myriad myths in which our contradictory attitudes to immigration are rooted

Kenan Malik, Observer

Fact-filled, well-argued and authoritatively written . . . There is much to commend in this book, which effortlessly summarises decades of social science research on migration . . . De Haas has written a valuable book that, whatever one’s views on immigration, will challenge many of the reader’s idées reçues and leave them better informed

Yuan Yi Zhu, The Times

An extraordinary and compelling book . . . takes two dozen myths about migration and ruthlessly demolishes them

Gavin Esler, Perspective

An impressively wide-ranging book . . . de Haas provides a welcome corrective to common misconceptions

Alan Gamlen, Nature

A groundbreaking study [that] challenges prevailing narratives surrounding global migration

Andy J. Semotiuk, Forbes

Fascinating

Naga Munchetty

A stimulating book . . . [that draws] on copious and often unexpected data

Marco d'Eramo, New Left Review

An illuminating book

Alan Beattie, Financial Times

Persuasive . . . this is an elegant book that focuses on the actual trends and patterns of migration . . . Armed with de Haas’s arguments, citizens will be better placed to challenge Western politicians when they make dubious assertions about the migrants in our midst

Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal

How Migration Really Works is a rarer thing: a book that resolutely trashes the assumptions both the left and the right use to prop up their belief systems. It is a brave venture . . . At his most incisive Haas gives an insight into why politicians double down on bad migration policies that rarely achieve what they set out to do

Ros Taylor, TLS