Immigration is good for the UK - and we damage our economy if we restrict it - Yorkshire Post Letters
From: John Cole, Oakroyd Terrace, Baildon, Shipley.
Immigration into the UK is an issue of high public concern. Recent governments (and some political parties) have argued strongly for reduced immigration. Already steps have been taken to cut down numbers arriving. However, what is certainly true is that these increasingly restrictive policies are wrong-headed, and are taking this country in a false direction.
Immigration is good for the UK - and we damage our economy if we restrict it.
Who says so?
Lauren Gilbert and Professor Jonathan Portes. Last month they jointly published a 27 page monograph that is packed to the brim with firm evidence and cogent reasoning. Its title is “Escaping the (immigration) Doom Loop”, and it can be accessed for free from The Progressive Economy website.
To take two quotes from its introduction: “Policy is driven at best by a perception of crisis that is at best only loosely connected to current trends.” and “...the UK is making a systematic error by treating immigration as a political liability rather than an economic input”.
What people working in this policy area have known for years is that immigrants are by a distance net contributors to the UK economy. They pay more in tax than the value of the public services that they consume. Moreover, the indigenous UK labour force is a declining proportion of the UK population and immigration is one way of making up the deficiency.
I suspect that what I am arguing here will not go down well with a number of Yorkshire Post readers. They prefer to go along with the myths circulated by Reform in particular, plus the Conservatives - and insufficiently challenged by a feeble Labour government.
My challenge to all of them is to go online, access the Gilbert/Portes monograph and read through it carefully. It is the perfect antidote to the all-too-frequent ‘confirmation bias’ of popular discourse.