The Census demonstrates the importance - and benefits - of immigration - Spectator Blogs

I suppose the confirmation that 13 per cent of the present population of England and Wales were born overseas will be the cause of some eye-brow raising and much spluttering from the usual suspects. It’s too late to repel the foreign hordes. They are inside the castle already. Some 7.5 million people born overseas now live in England and Wales (but mainly England).

Lucky old England, says I. Immigrants are drawn to and then help create economic prosperity. It is not, I suspect, a coincidence that depressed parts of northern England are also often those parts with the fewest numbers of foreign-born inhabitants. This makes sense: why would you leave Poland to claim benefits in Sunderland? No, you go where the work is. This also makes sense since, as can hardly be stressed too often, emigration is almost by definition an entrepreneurial act.