A simple way to take the measure of a country is to look at how many want in . . . and how many want out.

Blair’s remark proposes migration pressure as a practical proxy for national success. If many people seek to enter a country and few seek to leave it, the country likely offers security, opportunity, and functioning institutions; the reverse suggests instability, repression, or economic failure. The formulation is deliberately “simple,” implying it is not a complete moral or economic audit, but a revealing indicator grounded in human choice and risk-taking. It also frames immigration as evidence of a society’s attractiveness rather than merely a problem to be managed, while implicitly acknowledging that emigration can be a symptom of deeper structural issues.