Positive Benefits of
of Immigration in the UK
November 2014
Andrew Buttress
A brief introduction
Immigration is a political hot potato in the
UK. With a general election expected in
May 2015 immigration is high on the
agenda. All of a sudden a tough stance on
immigration has become a vote winner
and many politicians are already
appealing to the hearts and minds of
British voters. Immigration is emotive and
therein lays a problem. Quite easily, antiimmigration
feeling
could
become
widespread and newcomers to our shores
could be made to feel less than welcome.
It is essential, therefore, that we don’t lose
sight of the positive benefits of
immigration.
With net immigration to the UK (year
ending March 2014) being 243,000 and
the current estimate of the UK’s population
being 63.5 million, there are added strains
on our National Health Service, housing
and welfare system. These are not to be
denied or dismissed. Neither should the
realisation that successive governments
have not managed immigration well and
are at least partly responsible for the
strains, uncertainty and discontent felt by
many in the country. Nevertheless, there
are two sides of the immigration coin and
the following information deliberately
provides a positive side.
In a sea of statistics about immigration it
must be remembered that each number is
a person. Christians must not lose sight of
the Christian principle that loving thy
neighbour whatever their country of origin
is at the heart of the Christian faith and
ultimately comes before self-interest,
politically or nationally. Promoting the
positives of immigration recognises the
value that such a person brings and
dispels the generalisations which are
sometimes projected such as ‘all
immigration is bad’. It’s not; indeed much
immigration is very good.
After four brief definitions
some
basic
positive
benefits of immigration
are mentioned. These
are in key areas of economic and national
importance. This document is meant to be
short and sweet, easy to read and digest.
Links to sources are given.
Some basic definitions
Immigrant- is a person who has citizenship
in one country but who enters a different
country to set up residence. Just entering
another country does not make you an
immigrant. In order to be an immigrant you
must have citizenship in one country, and
you must have gone to a different country
with the specific intention of living there for
a period of time.
Foreign National - is a person who is not a
citizen of the host country in which he or
she is residing or temporarily staying.
Asylum Seeker - is a person who has fled
their country of origin due to persecution
or fear of persecution and has applied for
asylum or refuge in another country.
Refugee - is a person who has been
granted residence in a new country having
had their asylum request approved.
THE ECONOMY
The positive benefit: Immigration, from the
EU, adds a lot more to the UK economy
than it takes away.
The Centre for Research and Analysis of
Migration (Cream) based at University
College London has recently produced a
2014 report which states that immigrants
to the UK from the ten countries which
joined the EU in 2004 were a benefit to the
state and the public finances, not a
burden.
Professor Christian Dustmann, director of
Cream and co-author of the study, said: "A
key concern in the public debate on
migration is whether immigrants contribute
their fair share to the tax and welfare
systems. Our new analysis draws a
positive picture of the overall fiscal
contribution made by recent immigrant
cohorts, particularly of immigrants arriving
from the EU."
He
added:
"European
immigrants,
particularly, both from the new accession
countries and the rest of the European
Union, make the most substantial
contributions.”
One of the report’s most outstanding
findings is that between 1995 and 2011,
European immigrants made a positive
fiscal contribution of £4.4 billion to the UK.
In the same period, UK-born workers
made a negative contribution of £591
billion.
This confirmed the findings from the 2013
report which stated that “Overall, our
findings indicate that EEA (European
Economic Area which is the EU plus
Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein)
immigrants have made a positive fiscal
contribution, even during periods when the
UK was running budget deficits. This
positive
contribution
is
particularly
noticeable for more recent immigrants that
arrived since 2000 in particular from EEA
countries”.
This positive fiscal contribution during the
decade 2001-2011 means that immigrants
from the EEA contributed 34% more in
taxes than they received in benefits and
services. It also means that even though,
in 2012, around 100,000 EU migrants
were on working age benefits (out of 5.76
million nationally) this does not change the
overall positive contribution of EU
migrants.
Such findings support the Office for
Budget Responsibility (OBR) which gives
independent and authoritative analysis of
the UK’s public finances. In recent reports
the OBR has maintained that Britain
needs a steady flow of migrant labour to
fund public services in the coming
decades. Immigration has a positive
financial impact.
Robert Chote, head of the OBR has said,
in relation to the government’s finances,
that immigration "does tend to produce a
more beneficial picture. Because they’re
more likely to be working age, they’re
more likely to be paying taxes and less
likely to have relatively large sums of
money spent on them for education, for
long-term care, for healthcare, for pension
expenditure.”
and a new number of ‘virtually nil’ was
given in its place.
Such forecasts do rely on continued
immigration at around 140,000 a year with
the majority of migrants being young and
employable.
As Nick Robinson of the BBC commented
in March 2014:
EMPLOYMENT
The positive benefit: Immigration does not
take jobs from British workers but creates
jobs for British workers.
“Measuring the economic effects of
immigration
is
difficult
but
most
economists continue to insist that overall
immigration increases the size of the
British economy and the number of jobs
available for British citizens.”
Nick Robinson, BBC, 05.03.14
There is a misconception that immigration
has led to British workers being denied
British jobs. This misconception was not
helped by the government’s Migration
Advisory Committee which was asked to
look at the effect of immigration on jobs in
2011/12. Theresa May, the Home
Secretary, said in response to the findings
in 2012:
"They found a clear association between
non-European
immigration
and
employment in the UK. Between 1995 and
2010, the committee found an associated
displacement of 160,000 British workers.
For every additional 100 immigrants, they
estimated that 23 British workers would
not be employed."
This statement was called into question by
many economists within government and
others such as Jonathan Portes of the
National Institute of Economic and Social
Research who warned that this figure was
out of line with other research and was
just one of many statistics in a complex
study. As a result further analysis was
done drawing upon a wide range of
available information. A report was
subsequently
produced
which
had
altogether different findings.
The figure of 23 British workers being
denied a job by immigrants was rebuffed
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
This is backed up by 2012/13 labour
market statistics which show that 87% or
367,000 of the 425,000 new jobs in the UK
economy in the past year went to British
workers. Only 54,000 of the extra jobs in
the economy, or 13%, went to foreign
nationals.
In addition, the Confederation of British
Industry (CBI) conference (2014) has
recently expressed its concern that
uninformed,
poorly
thought-through
restrictions on immigration, will damage
the British economy.
THE NHS
this is not a new phenomenon. Ever since
the inception of the NHS in 1948,
immigrants have played their part in its
success, a point which should not be
overlooked now.
An article by Sky News, here gives further
information.
The
positive
benefit:
In
certain
organisations such as the NHS, migration
has enabled the continuation of a
professional, high quality public service.
Today 11% of all staff and 26% of doctors
in the NHS are non-British (Health and
Social Care Information Centre)
Without the contribution of non-British
staff, "many NHS services would struggle
to provide effective care to their patients."
(British Medical Association)
“If the single thread of immigration policy
is just to get the overall figure down by any
means, you've got to look at the
consequences of that on the NHS,” says
Tim Finch, from the Institute for Public
Policy Research
In an article in the Guardian, Finch
downplays the prospect of foreign
nationals preventing British people getting
a job in health services, saying that under
the government's points system for nonEU migrants, workers would not gain entry
unless there was a vacant post they were
needed to fill.
In March 2013, David Cameron rightly
said, “Our country has benefited
immeasurably from immigration. If you go
into any hospital you'll find people from
Uganda, India and Pakistan who are
caring for our sick and vulnerable.” Yet
CULTURE AND FAITH
The positive benefit: our lives are
enhanced and the UK church is enhanced
by living and worshipping with people from
other nationalities and cultures
Who doesn’t like going out to eat at an
Indian, Chinese, Thai or Mexican
restaurant? To taste different foods with
different smells adds to our experience of
cultural cuisine. If variety is the spice of life
then immigration offers that variety. The
form it takes may be expressed in music,
art, film or fashion – a different way of
doing things – a different perspective on
life. Becoming aware of other cultures’
customs can prove to be an educational
experience whether that is sharing
‘Thanksgiving’ with American friends or
attending a Greek wedding. Learning to
understand,
live
alongside
and
communicate with people from different
cultures adds to our own personal, social
and intellectual development.
What is more, immigration is two-way. It
means that British nationals can emigrate
and go and become immigrants: 74,000
did just this into Europe in 2013. We are
living in a global village with its immense
challenges and associated problems but
immigration should not be viewed with
fear. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin
Welby has said that the UK “should not
view immigration as a ‘deep menace’…
[for] part of the country's ‘strength and
brilliance’ lay in its long tradition of
welcoming foreigners.”
Furthermore, it is estimated that over half
the number of immigrants in the UK are
Christian. This is the claim in an article
written in 2011 by First Pint who draws
upon work conducted by the Institute for
Public Policy Research.
“Perhaps the most significant change,”
says the First Pint article, “‘has been the
growth of Pentecostal and charismatic
Christianity within migrant populations,
particularly those from Africa and Latin
America.”
The Catholic Church in the UK has also
been a main beneficiary as many
immigrants are of Catholic extraction.
These are the main, positive benefits of
immigration in the UK. Of course there are
some other factors which might be
construed as negative and are a cause for
concern. Yet the positive benefits should
not
be
overlooked
and
certain
misconceptions which seem to be
prevalent at this time in the UK regarding
immigration should be reconsidered in this
light.