The Positive Case for Immigration

A few reminders of the positive impact of immigration, likely to be depressingly absent from today’s mainstream political debate.

The narrative that migrants are a net drain on the system, consuming more in public services than they contribute in taxes, is false. An Oxford Economics study reported that on average, each migrant over their lifetime makes a positive net contribution of £28,000 (non-EEA) or £78,000 (EEA), putting in more than they take out in public services. By comparison, the average UK citizen’s net lifetime contribution in this study was zero.

Migrants are critical to our NHS and our social care sector. Three in 10 nurses (30%) and more than a third of doctors (36.3%) are non-UK nationals, driven by sharp increases in recent years, according to NHS Workforce data. Of the 1,282,623 full-time equivalent (FTE) hospital and community health service staff in England in September 2023 whose nationality was known, 20.4% were non-UK nationals.

Recent immigrants are 43% (17 percentage points) less likely to receive state benefits or tax credits than UK citizens. These differences are partly attributable to immigrants’ more favourable age-gender composition. However, even when compared with natives of the same age, gender composition, and education, recent immigrants are still 39% less likely than natives to receive benefits.

Population projections suggest that without immigration, the working population of England will stay roughly static over the next decade, but will be supporting an elderly population that will be 20% bigger, and also much older on average, and so much more dependent on health and social care. Without immigration, the maths suggest that the working population would face higher taxes, or that support to the elderly would need to be cut. Taxes paid by working-age immigrants will make this burden more manageable, not less.

Britain is a nation of immigrants; from Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans and Huguenots, right up to more recent arrivals from Ireland, Africa, the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent and Eastern Europe. Many quintessentially British icons were created or founded by first-generation migrants, including fish and chips, the Bank of England, Marks & Spencer, and the British Museum.