Actually, not bad at all. From NewScientist (12 September 2015, paywall) comes Deborah MacKenzie’s report:
Even without a worker shortage, migrants needn’t be a burden. On 4 September the World Bank, the UN’s International Labour Organization and the OECD club of rich countries issued a report concluding that “in most countries migrants pay more in taxes and social contributions than they receive.”
In a study last year, researchers at University College London found both European and non-European immigrants to the UK more than pay their way. Non-Europeans living in the UK since 1995 brought £35 billion worth of education with them. Those who arrived between 2000 and 2011 were less likely than native Brits to be on state benefits, and no more likely to live in social housing. Unlike natives, they contributed a net £5 billion in taxes during that period.
That is partly because most migrants are young and need relatively little in the way of benefits. Their economic impact approaches that of natives as they age and assimilate. But the positive effect can be substantial: Carlos Vargas-Silva of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford reported this year that letting in 260,000 immigrants a year could halve the UK’s public debt 50 years from now.
As much as I’m delighted to see research such as this, a pop-sci magazine like NewScientist does leave one wondering if the researchers explored such questions as whether or not average age of each wave of refugees increases as the the conflict continues, and what is the marginal impact of that last refugee? Are the members of the last wave as productive and positive in their eventual contributions to society as the first wave? In other words, the context is changing as more and more refugees accumulate in country X – does this change the economic output of the refugees?
Granted, most resentment is simply xenophobia cloaked in economic concerns, and some governments do not permit that to influence policy. For example, Germany vs UK:
One EU country seems unfazed: Germany says it can take 800,000 asylum seekers this year. It counts on immigrants to replenish its ageing workforce and the EU’s emergency asylum rules say resettled refugees can legally work. Germany had 200,000 more deaths than births in 2012, more than compensated by 391,000 immigrants. In contrast, UK prime minister David Cameron bowed to public pressure and this week said the country would take just 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020.
It’ll be interesting to see who has the greater regrets in 50 years.
