There was much glee about yesterday’s publication of a report into the economic impact of immigration, which concluded eastern Europeans had provided a net benefit of £4.4 billion to the UK economy.
There was far less mention of the fact that immigrants from outside Europe in the same period cost the taxpayers £118 billion.
But as Christopher Caldwell observed in Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, the immigration debate is not about economics, for
‘the social, spiritual, and political effects of immigration are huge and enduring, while the economic effects are puny and transitory. If, like certain Europeans, you are infuriated by polyglot markets and street signs written in Polish, Urdu, and Arabic, sacrificing 0.0035 of your economy would be a pittance to pay for starting to get your country back. If, like other Europeans, you view immigration as a lifeline of excitement, worldliness, and palatable cuisine thrown to your drab and provincial country, then immigration would be a bargain even if it imposed a significant economic cost.’
That figure of £118 billion is not entirely fair, of course, because the low labour participation of Bangladeshis and Pakistanis reflects the fact many of them are doing a job Brits don’t do: having families.
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