Continuing the immigration debate

My post on immigration the other week was picked up by BBC World Service, who invited me to discuss it with Lord Maurice Peston (podcast here). I regard it as one of the most important yet least discussed issues in Britain right now, and my original also raised some typically robust comments and critiques from CoffeeHousers. My point is that Britain has a dangerously dysfunctional labour market, one so flawed that when the economy expands it sucks in foreign workers rather than tackling our unemployment. I also revealed that all net job creation in the private sector can be accounted for by immigration.

Anyway, allow me to respond to some of the points raised:

1. THE BORIS FACTOR. “So anyone who moved here as a child in the 80s or nineties count as Foreign Born I presume” – Statto. Yes, this is the implication of the Eurostat definition. It is used by some – including many on the right – to suggest the whole definition is nonsense (after all, Boris was born in America).