Barometer | 28 March 2013

Economic migrants

David Cameron announced that the government would make it harder for migrants to claim benefits, NHS treatment and social housing. Do migrants make a positive contribution to the public coffers?

— A Home Office study using data from 1999-2000 concluded that migrants paid £31.2bn in taxes and used £28.8bn in public services, for a net contribution of £2.5bn
— A paper in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, using data from 2003/04, found migrants contributed a net £600m
— The Institute of Public Policy Research, using data from 2003/04, concluded that migrants cost the country a net £400m
— The pressure group MigrationWatch, also using data from 2003/04, concluded that migrants cost the taxpayer a net £5bn
— The House of Lords select committee on economic affairs, in 2008, found migrants had a ‘small’ overall effect, which official data was not good enough to quantify.

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