Decade of immigration has 'benefited' UK economy

Posted on 30 April 2008

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Government immigration policy has been given the thumbs up by non-profit organisation The Work Foundation, claiming that the effect of migrant workers on the UK labour market - including agency workers - has been wholly positive.

The group claimed that the high levels of immigration permitted into Britain over the past decade has have benefited Britain's economy, and no hard evidence has been found that migrants negatively affect the labour market.

Entitled Migration Myths: Employment Wages and Labour Market Performance, the report claims that the new skills mix brought by migrant workers complements the UK labour market and has not exerted any downward pressure on wages.

According to WorkPermit.com, report author David Coats writes: "Foreign doctors working in the NHS are obviously filling a gap created by a shortage of supply of British doctors, are clearly not willing to work for lower wages and are playing an important role in matching labour demand to labour supply."

Identifying immigration problems on the administrative side, he added: "The official statistics are so haphazard that the government finds it difficult to defend otherwise good policies."

The findings of the Work Foundation have been backed up by the Home Builders Federation, which claimed that workers from Eastern Europe who are already trained, skilled and qualified have in fact plugged a gap in many sectors such as construction, where the domestic labour force could not have.

Category: Agency News

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