Far from being a drain on the nation, migrants actually make Britain a more prosperous place

Far from being a drain on the nation, migrants actually make Britain a more prosperous place, according to a major report by researchers at University College London last year. It found that immigrants from the European Union who came to Britain between 2000 and 2011 paid out £20 billion more in taxes than they received in benefits. There are more than six million foreign-born workers in Britain, accounting for one in seven of all in employment, according to Oxford University’s Migration Observatory. They make up more than a third of workers in food and clothing manufacturing, and more than a quarter of warehouse workers. And 31 per cent of cleaners and people working in food preparation and hospitality – ranging from butchers to cooks and bar managers - are migrant workers. Around 30 per cent of NHS doctors, and 40 per cent of nurses, are from overseas. One in five of carers are foreign workers, and tens of thousands of migrants work as fruit and vegetable pickers. More than one in three of all foreign-born workers live in London. Britain’s economy could come to a standstill but for the contribution of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. So we should welcome them for the positive contribution that they make. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1113/051113-migration-report

Recent immigration to the UK: New evidence of the fiscal costs and benefits www.ucl.ac.uk UCL News RSS Feed: The latest news from UCL.