UK better off with migrants

UK better off with migrants

Immigration contributed £6bn to Britain's economic growth last year, according to new official figures today, prompting the government to claim Britain is better off with immigration than without it.

The Home Office figures provide the first full analysis of the impact of increased immigration in the last decade. The figures outlined in a 43-page report suggest many fears on the subject are unfounded.

It said that in 2006, 574,000 migrants came to live in the UK and that they contributed around a sixth of the total growth in the economy that year.

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On average, migrants earned more than native workers and paid more tax, suggesting that they are more productive, the report said.

The report pointed out that migrants made up 9.6% of the population in 2003-04 but contributed 10% of government revenue in taxes while using only 9.1% of government expenditure in the services they consume.

The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, said: "In the long run, our country and exchequer is better off with immigration rather than without it."

However, he conceded that in some areas increased migration has stretched services.

"In communities that do not have a history of absorbing migrants [it] has been unsettling and has created challenges for public services."

Mr Byrne said the research would inform a government decision on whether to continue to block migrant workers from Romania and Bulgaria.

"What we need to do is strike the right balance for Britain's national interest, starting with the decision on Bulgarian and Romanian workers a little later this year," he said in a speech to public servants in Harlow, Essex.

Last month, three chief constables called for greater resources to cope with an influx of immigrants from eastern Europe.

Today's report suggested that increased immigration had not increased unemployment and would reduce Britain's dependency on the working population.

It pointed out that as the workforce ages the ratio of children and elderly people to those in work increases. Without immigration this ratio would rise to 82% by 2056. With projected increases in immigration this would rise to only 74%.

bunch of scroungers eh

All the poles at my place graft harder than the rest of us to be fair and they'll do all the overtime going

Maybe its got something to do with underpaid polish people. The government and corporate scum are the first to be pc. No fucking wonder, there using these people to line their pockets. If they made me billions id openly invite them into the country.

Im polishist. From experience they're disgusting bastards.

Raiding bins and shitting in the streets. I suppose the same could be said about geordie slags though so theres a flipside to every arguement.

ahh so its all about money, money first as per usual

Migrant workers are great of your employer, not so great if youre an employee.

I think the fact our country is dependant on migrant workers & foreign imports is a train wreck waiting to happen.

America is in debt for trillions, we've lost the ability to train or employee our own people, industrialism has been ripped away from the west.... How can a country survive when it can't manufacture, it can't educate and it can't get out of debt?

I was once a bleeding heart liberal, but I'm starting to agree more and more with far right nationalist parties (just without the racism).

I'm afraid the racism comes with the package

Too many people assume that we'll take the cushy educated jobs and leave all our manufacturing to immigrant workers.

Thing is, Chinese/Indian universities are advancing incredibly fast and it's going to easier and more acceptable to outsource skilled work, especially information stuff.

The only way to maintain a competetive edge is to plow investment into schools and especially universities - in good degrees. I'd start by refuding the tuition fees of technology/engineering/science graduates.

How on earth does racism come with nationalist politics?

thats like saying loving thy neighbours comes with left wing politics.

That wont make any difference ina free global market where the movement of workers is the norm.... The skilled worker willing to work for the least will 9 times out of 10 be recruited.

We need to take back industry and become less reliant on imported goods and workers if we are to survive the collapse of the west

We have a highly educated middle class, which is being seriously challenged by workers from countries like nigeria and poland.

so your solution is to build a big wall and retreat behind it and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist?
far right policies are always a dead end. no man is an island and no country either (despite what the geography says)
we need to be more engaged with the world not less if we are to survive.

ok forks, I'll ask you an economical question - how will the UK sustain a population in the manor we're all acustomed too in this global world?

who says we can?

and to answer this ....... if you are nationalist it is axiomatic that you beleive your nation to be superior, and thus other nations to be inferior. I think that is a racist position no?

dont belive everything you read,

growth in prophets have went up so have knife crime and other activitys

you said we had to if we were to survive in the modern world... I asked you to explain this.

are you sure? last time I checked being nationlist meant you supported and wished to prolong the existence of your nation... nothing to do with believing youre superior.

The scottis national party are highly nationalist but they don't believe themselves to be superior to englishmen.

oh i think they do

if we are to survive as a small nation on an island off europe we need to trade. it's the only way. In order to do that we have to engage with the world not turn our backs on it as you advocate. However i did NOT say we could expect to carry on our present lifestyle indefinately. The far right, the left or the centre have no real answers to this and I think we are all going to have to accept a poorer time in future. migrants help keep us in the manner to which we have become accustomed by doing work for shit money but it's unsustainable in the longer term.
and the racism does come with far right ideology, it's an integral part of that philosophy which is based at root on fear of 'the other'. sympathy with it is also what led to the holocaust not free speech

Since when did being nationalistic mean you're a racist?

We have nothing to trade as we're a service economy.

Services can easily migrate to other emerging markets.

Where on earth did I advocate this? when you're not redifining nationalism you're putting words in my mouth.

I clearly stated that we need to reindustrialise and wheen England away from cheap foreign imports and cheap foreign labour... We're no longer living in the dark ages when rich land owneers and industrialists could exploit the peasant and slave classes, we exploit China and India, the only difference being these workshops are educated and self-serving... We are reliant on nations that could topple our economy in the blink of an eye - it could even work in their favour if they did.

The current tangent we're on cannot last forever, we need to find an alternative.

Local councils would be encouraged to fit security devices to all council houses
Old Age Pensioners would be helped to make their homes secure and would also be provided with personal alarms
Neighbourhood watch schemes would be encouraged and extended


Three random far right policies from the National Front which don't include racism.