{"id":159,"date":"2012-10-30T15:32:27","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T15:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"\/2012\/10\/30\/immigration-control-is-no-barrier-to-economic\/"},"modified":"2012-10-30T15:32:27","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T15:32:27","slug":"immigration-control-is-no-barrier-to-economic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.migrationwatchuk.org\/news\/2012\/10\/30\/immigration-control-is-no-barrier-to-economic\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration Control is no Barrier to Economic Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/strong> The Economist and
\nothers, such as Jonathan Portes (Director of the NIESR) are wrong to claim that
\nimmigration control is acting as a barrier to economic recovery. A careful
\nexamination of the immigration statistics does not support their exaggerated
\nclaims. That is not to say that the bureaucracy cannot be improved and
\nMigrationwatch will be making some suggestions in this regard. Meanwhile we examine the evidence.<\/p>\n

1. Nobody
\ndisputes the importance of reviving economic growth but, on examining the
\nfacts, it is very hard to argue that recent reforms to the immigration system
\nconstitute any significant impediment to a resumption of growth.<\/p>\n

2. In his
\nblog of 23 August 2012 (See
\nhere)<\/a> Mr. Portes described recent changes to skilled migration as \u201ca set of
\nnew burdensome and bureaucratic rules and regulations\u201d which make it more difficult
\nfor businesses to employ the workers they want and, as a consequence, reduce
\ngrowth and make us poorer.<\/p>\n

3. It is
\nhard to see what, in practice, he is referring to. There is no limit on
\nIntra-Company Transfers (ICT\u2019s) nor, of course, on any form of recruitment from
\nthe EEA – a pool of over 500 million people. Tier 1,
\nthe route for self-starters, was effectively closed after evidence that a
\nsignificant proportion ended up in unskilled roles such as shop assistants,
\nsecurity guards, supermarket cashiers, and care assistants. (See
\nhere)<\/a> Tier 2, employer sponsored skilled labour, was capped at 20,700 a
\nyear but in it first year, only about half that quota has been taken up. (See
\nhere)<\/a> Improved routes have been introduced for entrepreneurs and investors.
\n(See
\nhere)<\/a><\/p>\n

4. The
\nsame blog also refers to Mr. Portes\u2019 evidence to the Treasury Select Committee
\nin March 2011 (See
\nhere)<\/a> in which he claimed that, \u201cby applying simple arithmetic to official
\npublications\u201d, he had calculated that the cap on skilled migration would reduce
\nUK output by \u00a32 \u2013 4 billion over the whole 5 year period of this Parliament.  According to his evidence about half of this
\nwas pure population effect.<\/p>\n

5. These
\ncalculations were based on the Home Office Impact Assessment.  It estimated that there would be a reduction
\nof 11,000 a year in skilled immigrants (and their dependants), or 50,000 over
\nthe whole period, and it stated that those excluded would be, on average, about
\ntwice as productive as current UK residents.<\/p>\n

6. In practice,
\nthe cap has not been reached so no significant number of genuinely skilled
\nworkers has been excluded. Indeed, the preliminary evidence suggests that most
\nof the reduction was in chefs and care workers \u2013 hardly vital to productivity
\nand growth. Other economic migrants might have been excluded by the higher
\nthreshold for Tier 2 but that implies that they were of somewhat lower skills
\nand unlikely to be twice as productive as British workers. Mr. Portes recognised
\nthat his calculation could prove exaggerated if those migrants \u201cexcluded\u201d had
\nlower productivity than the average migrant.
\nThat indeed is what has happened.<\/p>\n

7. His
\nblog continues that the UK being \u201copen for business\u201d should also mean being
\nopen to labour mobility. He suggests
\nthat \u201csimply reversing the new regulations introduced by this government, let
\nalone further deregulation, could yield large gains.  Sounds good but does he really advocate
\nunlimited immigration of skilled workers from, for example, India?  If so he should say so. That, however, would be a recipe for massive
\nlevels of immigration which are simply not acceptable to the public and it
\nwould surely be better to recognise that.<\/p>\n

8. Indeed,
\nsince the year 2000, the British labour market has expanded by just over 2
\nmillion, nearly all of whom were foreign born. (See
\nhere)<\/a> Whatever the technical arguments, it is clear that, over the boom
\nperiod up to 2008, British workers were not drawn into the active labour market
\nas would have been desirable. Obviously,
\nimmigration is not the only factor. There are issues of motivation and welfare
\nprovision as well as education and training but it does seem clear that, if
\nemployers are entirely free to bring in cheap, flexible and non-unionised
\nlabour, they are likely to do so \u2013 especially if they are tied to them by the
\nwork permit system. For wider social
\nreasons it is important that there should be some countervailing pressure on
\nemployers to train and employ British workers.<\/p>\n

9. It would
\nbe helpful if Mr. Portes were to be clear about the kind of immigration policy
\nthat he advocates. If he advocates an open door policy he should say so. If he
\nadvocates a selective immigration policy, than he needs to be clear about where
\nthe lines should be drawn. It is important that we also contextualise
\nimmigration policy against the backdrop of a rapidly increasing population (two
\nthirds due to immigration), and two and a half million people unemployed.<\/p>\n

10. Nobody has yet produced any hard evidence of
\nsignificant economic benefit to the resident population from recent mass
\nimmigration. The House of Lords report
\nin April 2008 was quite clear that they had \u201cfound no evidence\u2026\u2026 that net
\nmigration generates significant economic benefits for the existing UK
\npopulation.\u201d (See
\nabstract here)<\/a> Indeed the MAC pointed out recently that much of any benefit
\ngoes to the immigrants themselves. (See
\nParagraphs 3.6-3.13 here)<\/a> Nor should we overlook the results of the study
\nby the NIESR, a body which Mr. Portes now heads, which found that the
\ncontribution of East European migrants to GDP per head was expected to be
\n\u201cnegligible\u201d (See Exec
\nSummary here)<\/a>, indeed negative in the long run (p 26). Quotes from the US cut very little ice. Their society is very different. Their labour markets are much more flexible
\nand their welfare much more limited.
\nNor are they exactly a small island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction: The Economist and others, such as Jonathan Portes (Director of the NIESR) are wrong to claim that immigration control is acting as a barrier to economic recovery. A careful examination of the immigration statistics does not support their exaggerated claims. That is not to say that the bureaucracy cannot be improved and Migrationwatch will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,13,5,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-employment","category-migration-trends","category-visaswork-permits"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nImmigration Control is no Barrier to Economic Recovery - Migration Watch UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.migrationwatchuk.org\/news\/2012\/10\/30\/immigration-control-is-no-barrier-to-economic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Immigration Control is no Barrier to Economic Recovery - Migration Watch UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Introduction: The Economist and others, such as Jonathan Portes (Director of the NIESR) are wrong to claim that immigration control is acting as a barrier to economic recovery. 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