New EU immigrants 'benefit UK economy' says report

photo - PR

The report, released on 5 November, by the university's Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration finds that contributions from taxes paid by Polish and other workers from the 10 nations who joined the EU in 2004 to 2011 far outweighed welfare and other benefits some have taken.

The report comes as immigration to the UK continues to become one of the main political issues in the country, with Prime Minister David Cameron promising to re-negotiate Britain's EU membership and then hold an 'in/out' referendum, should he win next year's general election.

The University of London report also finds that the new immigrants are better educated than the average Brit, with 25 percent of Poles and others working in the UK having a university degree.

“A key concern in the public debate on migration is whether immigrants contribute their fair share to the tax and welfare systems,” says co-author of the report Professor Christian Dustmann.

“Our new analysis draws a positive picture of the overall fiscal contribution made by recent immigrant cohorts, particularly of immigrants arriving from the EU,” he says.

The report has been criticised by David Green from the right-wing Civitas thinktank, however, who calls the findings “shallow”.

“People who migrate tend to be young, better educated and energetic. They make good employees here but they are a loss to their own country. If other European countries fail to prosper because their brightest and best have travelled to the UK, we are all worse off,” he told the UK Guardian newspaper. (pg)