| Author (Corporate) | UCL Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) |
|---|---|
| Series Title | Press Release |
| Series Details | 05.11.14 |
| Publication Date | 05/11/2014 |
| Content Type | News, Report |
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The impact of immigration on Britain’s tax and welfare system is perhaps the most important economic issue in the debate over the country’s relationship with the EU and its principle of free movement. There are claims that immigrants from Europe take advantage of the UK’s benefit and health system. This has led to political pressure to limit immigrants' access to benefits and public services and even restrict immigration from the European Economic Area countries. European immigrants to the UK have paid more in taxes than they received in benefits, helping to relieve the fiscal burden on UK-born workers and contributing to the financing of public services – according to new research by the UCL Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM). European immigrants who arrived in the UK since 2000 have contributed more than £20bn to UK public finances between 2001 and 2011. Moreover, they have endowed the country with productive human capital that would have cost the UK £6.8bn in spending on education. Over the period from 2001 to 2011, European immigrants from the EU-15 countries contributed 64% more in taxes than they received in benefits. Immigrants from the Central and East European ‘accession’ countries (the ‘A10’) contributed 12% more than they received. These are the central findings of new analysis by Professor Christian Dustmann and Dr Tommaso Frattini of the fiscal consequences of European immigration to the UK, published by the Royal Economic Society on Wednesday 5 November 2014 in the Economic Journal. However Migration Watch chairman Sir Andrew Green told the BBC: 'If you take all EU migration including those who arrived before 2001 what you find is this: you find by the end of the period they are making a negative contribution and increasingly so'. 'And the reason is that if you take a group of people while they're young fit and healthy they're not going to be very expensive, but if you take them over a longer period they will be'. He added: 'This report confirms that immigration as a whole has cost up to £150bn in the last 17 years'. |
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| Source Link | Link to Main Source http://www.cream-migration.org/files/Press_release_FiscalEJ.pdf |
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| Subject Categories | Justice and Home Affairs |
| Countries / Regions | United Kingdom |
