A Summary History Of Immigration To Britain

Introduction 1.1 There have always been episodes of migration to Britain but, as this paper demonstrates, those episodes were small and demographically insignificant until the Second World War. A study of official census records from 1851 until the present shows that the number of people born abroad living in Britain was very small until the […]

The Guardian And Data ‘facts’

The Guardian recently posted an article in their ‘DataBlog’ section which claimed to examine the facts behind our headline claim that 150,000 eastern European migrants pay no more than £1 a week in direct tax.  It is disappointing that despite writing under the tagline “Facts are sacred” the author, Tom Wills is unable or unwilling […]

Tax Contribution Of East European Migrants

In a Today Programme interview on 30 April about our paper published that day (see Briefing Paper 1.38), Mr Portes did not challenge our findings that low paid migrants pay little or no net direct tax.   However, he suggested that we had overlooked the effect of other taxes paid by the low-paid.  He made the particular […]

Many East Europeans Work Hard But How Many Pay Tax?

About 150,000 pay only £1 a week net tax A new study out today reveals some of the ‘hidden’ costs to the UK taxpayer of the unprecedented wave of low paid Eastern European immigration in the past decade and how they are being ‘subsidised’ by the UK taxpayer. The research from think tank Migration Watch […]

Mrs Roche On The “benefits” Of Immigration

In her article for The Independent on Sunday on 20 April, Barbara Roche criticised Yvette Cooper for failing, in her recent speech, to make “the single most important argument on migration; that immigrants put more into Britain than they take out”.    She continued “Their net contribution – equivalent to more than 4p on the basic […]

Nick Clegg In The Debate And The True Scale Of Eu Migration

On April 2nd The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader took part in a debate on the European Union in which questions were taken from members of the studio audience. One question asked about the level of immigration and its impact on infrastructure[1]. “Although I believe that immigration is essential for […]

Labour Still Doesn’t Grasp Public Anger At Immigration

By Sir Andrew Green Yvette Cooper’s speech on immigration yesterday illustrates the huge gap between the public and politicians. The shadow home secretary’s remarks amounted to an elegant camouflage for Labour’s absence of policy on the key issues. The central issue is not whether immigration is good or bad, but what is a desirable scale […]

Migration Watch Uk Press Comment On Yvette Cooper’s Immigration Speech

Commenting on Yvette Cooper’s speech, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “This speech is elegant camouflage for the absence of any real policy on the central issue of scale. Net foreign immigration under the last Labour government totalled nearly four million, two thirds from outside the European Union.  Yvette Cooper now says she wants to see a […]