14 November 2013

Sarah Glenister, IER staff

While the right wing say immigration is a burden on our country, the IER believes migrant workers add to our economy and labour market could add more if they were better protected against exploitation.

The Guardian published seven ways in which Eastern European migrants are benefiting the UK this week, as below:

1. In a report published last week, researchers at University College London found that migrants who came to the UK after 2000 were 45% less likely than the indigenous population to claim benefits or receive tax credits, and 3% less likely to live in social housing.
2. According to the report, those from the European Economic Area (EU countries, plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland) made a particularly high contribution to GDP, paying out 34% more in taxes than they received in benefits. Their net contribution was worth about £25bn to the Treasury.
3. Migrants are blamed for clogging up A&E, but figures show hospital admission rates for migrants are half the level of people of the same age in the British-born population.
4. A London School of Economics study earlier this year found that in neighbourhoods that had experienced mass migration from eastern Europe over the past 10 years, crime had fallen significantly. Levels of burglary, vandalism and car theft had all dropped.
5. Migrants from eastern Europe, because they tend to be young, have contributed to a marked increase in the birth rate. That, in turn, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, has slowed the rate of ageing of the UK population as a whole. Twenty-five years ago, the UK was second only to Sweden as the most aged population. Last year it was down to 15th among EU countries, and is projected to carry on falling down the "most aged" list. That has beneficial effects in terms of sharing the tax burden and helping to care for an ageing British-born population.
6. A study last year by the Office for Budget Responsibility suggested that GDP would grow by 2.3% in a decade under a scenario of high migration, 0.2% higher than if there was zero migration, and said the gap would widen in succeeding decades.
7. The OBR also said that because higher immigration meant a larger working population, migrants would have a beneficial effect on levels of national debt. By 2062, with high migration, debt would be 50% of GDP; with low migration, 90%.

It is time we changed the dialogue about migrant labour and stopped allowing the right-wing to lead the debate and push their own ideological stance.

The Institute of Employment Rights is dedicated to getting the message out about how migrant labour both benefits our country, and is being exploited by our country. Regulation that fails to properly protect migrant labour hurts those who come to the UK to work, and those who are British-born, through downward pressure on wages and conditions.

We must not accept the actions of exploitative employers taking advantage of migrant workers, who are among the most vulnerable people in the labour market. Instead, the law must be changed to ensure they are treated with decency, and policy must be founded on a rights-based model rather than one which focuses on cost/benefit analysis or cultural restrictions.

People are not a commodity, and everybody has the right to a fair wage and fair working conditions in the UK.

On Wednesday 20 November 2013, the UK's leading experts on labour migration and employment law will speak at the Institute of Employment Rights' Labour Migration in Hard Times conference. The event also serves as the launch for our latest publication on the issue.

Regular readers are being rewarded with a massive 45% off our usual entry fee! Just quote '2450' when booking your place.