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EU migrants now better educated than UK workforce – and contributing billions to the economy, say UCL researchers (5 November 2014)

Date: 05/11/2014
Duncan Lewis, Immigration Solicitors, EU migrants now better educated than UK workforce – and contributing billions to the economy, say UCL researchers

New research by leading migration experts at University College London (UCL) has suggested that migrants have contributed £20 billion to the UK economy in taxes over the last ten years.

The Guardian reports that European migrants contribute “far more” to Britain’s economy than they take out in welfare benefits – and the UK is also attracting well-educated and highly-skilled migrants from other EU member states, outstripping Germany in the quality of migrant workers it is attracting.

The Fiscal Impact of Immigration to the UK reveals that more than 60% of migrants from western and southern Europe are university educated. Among migrants who come to the UK from Eastern Europe to work, 25% are graduates – compared with just 24% of the UK-born workforce.

However, UK students and EU undergraduates studying in the UK now pay £9,000 a year in university tuition fees, whereas course fees in other EU member states can be much lower. In countries like Denmark, there are no course fees for EU and home students – and in many other EU countries like France, tuition fees are less than €500 per year or semester for EU and home students.

The report also estimates that, between 2000 and 2011, EU migrants contributed £20bn to the UK economy in working taxes.

A total of 64% of this came from migrants from the original fifteen EU countries such as France and Spain, meaning EU migrants contributed £15bn in taxes to the UK economy and took out £5bn in UK welfare benefits. Migrants from Eastern Europe contributed more than £5bn (12%) in taxes in the same period.

The study was carried out to fill a “void” in the immigration debate, the researchers say.

Co-author of the study Professor Christian Dustmann – who is head of UCL’s centre for research and analysis of migration – said that the educational attainment of migrants from southern and western Europe was increasingly high:

“A key concern of the public debate on migration is whether immigrants contribute their fair share to the tax and welfare systems.

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

Prof Dustmann was one of a group of academics responsible for predicting how many migrants from Poland and other Eastern European member states might come to the UK when border restrictions were lifted for EU workers in 2004.

Prof Dustmann and his colleague Dr Tommaso Frattini were also at the centre of controversy last year when it was claimed a UCL migration report they had published in November 2013 relied on interpretations of data which “overstated” the case.

The November 2013 UCL migration report claimed EU migrants contributed £25bn to the UK economy and was based on the British Labour Force Survey, as well as tax data and public expenditure statistics. The findings put paid to the theory that EU migrants took out more from the UK economy in benefits than they contributed in taxes.

However, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at UCL, Mervyn Stone and colleague Nigel Williams – statistician for independent think tank Civitas – said that independent analysis of Dustmann’s and Frattini’s “reasoning and methodology” demonstrated that “they significantly overstated their case”.

The report became a focus for the public and media backlash over the lifting of border restrictions for Romania and Bulgaria, which had sparked fears the UK would be “flooded” with unskilled jobseekers from the two countries, who would claim benefits.

The anticipated influx from Bulgaria and Romania failed to materialise, however – but the government introduced restrictions on access to out-of-work benefits for migrants new to the UK as a result of public concern.

The latest UCL migration report is published in the Economic Journal.

Duncan Lewis Immigration Solicitors

Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors can advise EU migrants on a wide range of UK immigration matters, including right to work in the UK, access to out-of-work benefits and housing benefit.

Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors can also advise EU migrants and non-EU migrants on:

• Asylum in the UK and asylum appeals
• British citizenship
• Fast-track Detention
• International marriage
• Marriage in the UK
• Spouse and partner visas
• Student visas
• Visa overstays.

For expert legal advice on UK immigration law, call Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors on 020 7923 4020.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/05/migration-target-useless-experts



http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/05/eu-migrants-uk-gains-20bn-ucl-study


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