World Review

Countering left- and right-wing myths about immigration

5 reading minutes

written by Jonas Follonier · 09 June 2026 · 0 comment

Countering left- and right-wing myths about immigration

Hein de Haas

The logic of migration by Hein de Haas came very close to fulfilling his promise: to escape right-wing... and left-wing bias. Nevertheless, the colossal work of this professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam is worth reading.

Global migration has not reached record levels. Border restrictions do not prevent not illegal immigration, they encourage it. Climate change will not not of mass migration... If these statements seem counter-intuitive to you, then you need to get yourself The logic of migration by Hein de Haas. This fluid, well-researched book shows «how established facts refute widespread myths» about migration.

Left and right pinned

If it hadn't been for Peggy Sastre's translation of this essay into French, perhaps the author of this review wouldn't have flocked to it. The fact that the French journalist generally chooses her authors very well was enough to dispel the caution that was due to yet another scientific posture claiming to escape the ideological biases «of both left and right» and which, in reality, is often the reflection of another, center-left inclination.

Professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam, Hein de Haas is one of those authors who want to make readers of all stripes reconsider their certainties. This rational, reconciliatory approach is the book's greatest quality, but also its main flaw.

Let's start with its greatest quality. The Dutchman pinpoints the alarmist rhetoric of both conservative parties and refugee organizations. The former, to exist electorally, the latter to have more budget available – which amounts to much the same thing, by the way. In this, the essayist's promise is kept: everyone gets their comeuppance. And the reader comes away enriched by a wealth of statistics, maps, trends and explanations.

Blind corners

Now for the book's major flaw. Paradoxical as it may seem, these 586 pages teeming with figures and arguments miss important controversial issues. This is because, by basing his theses on the global reality of migration, expressed in the form of data, Hein de Haas too confidently dismisses local challenges and qualitative.

If there has been a perceived migratory crisis in Europe over the last few decades, it's because the flows have reversed. The Old Continent has stopped colonizing and populating other lands, and it is people from this «global South» who have begun to come to Europe. The author concludes that there is no migration crisis, since «global migration rates have remained surprisingly stable over the last century». He adds: «The idea of increasing diversity thus reflects a deeply Eurocentric – and potentially racist – bias, insofar as it implies that non-European migrants are, by nature, more ‘diverse‘.’

This is to dismiss the cultural issue too quickly. Admittedly, there are cultural differences between the countries of Europe themselves, and even between the regions of a country, right down to its towns and villages. But, contrary to the author's claims, just because large waves of Italians were mistakenly seen as a threat to Switzerland's identity does not necessarily mean that this is not the case when it comes to people from the Muslim world today.

Read also | The Clash of Civilizationsimmigration vs. immigrations

Hein de Haas's colossal work is nonetheless worth reading, and is counterbalanced by Oxford researcher Laurenz Guenther's article «Why immigration research is probably biased», as well as the book Immigration, myths and realities by political scientist Nicolas Pouvreau-Monti.

Graduate in philosophy and journalist by profession, Jonas Follonier is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Regard Libre. Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com.