“Mass migration has been used to paper over economic issues in Britain and is “storing up longer-run problems”, the UK’s former border tsar has admitted.
Prof Alan Manning said “extremely high” recent levels of net migration would prove costly in the future as people age and draw on public services such as the NHS.
The former head of the Migration Advisory Committee said: “The fiscal effects of immigration are much better in the short-run than they are in the long-run.
Analysis by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has shown that the average low-earning migrant who moves to the UK aged 25 will cost the Government more overall than they contribute in tax from the moment they arrive.
The cost to the public purse will have risen to £150,000 per person by the time they can claim the state pension, according to the fiscal watchdog. This is because low-paid migrants, who the OBR assumes earn half the average wage, use more public services than they contribute in tax.
Mr Manning, who lectures at the London School of Economics, said: “It would be a mistake to look at the current low numbers and say actually, we need to liberalise. That would be to risk repeating the boom-bust cycle that we’ve just been through.”
We need real, meaningful reform to immigration policy. The current way of thinking about immigration is not sustainable for the long-term economic or social wellbeing of the UK.
Humble_Dirt_5751 on
Nobody will fix the problem and then reform will get into power
SuchAd7998 on
It’s a pyramid scheme and will likely collapse within our lifetime. We need to stop relying on GDP as a meaningful figure and find something else to measure success on.
Direct-Key-8859 on
We make it extremely hard for high skilled migrants to settle down for extremely easy for low skilled.
I really don’t know why we dont copy Australia. Let low skilled people come here on a 3 year visa, benefit from the short term economic boom then if they are not needed, kick them out before they become a burden. Everyone wins. These people get a bit of money to send home and we get the immediate tax/filled job without them draining public services.
Right now there are many Indians/Pakistanis who are educated and want to come here and contribute and raise kids who will do the same. Of course there will be the odd nutter but most want of these people want to assimilate and contribute. However they need to jump through the same hoops as someone with basically no English skills.
If you can prove you will be an asset over the lifetime in this country we should welcome you with open arms. However if you can’t, you should not have any chance of settling beyond the first few years of the immediate boost an immigrant brings.
Like I said, an Australian style point system would help out in this regard
richardbaxter on
We are already in “the future problem” . As soon as we exited the EU, non EU immigration shot up – some 5x the level of EU immigration. EU immigration was never a problem. Skilled people who we needed to come here to do helpful things like build our houses and lay our roads and pick our vegetables… That’s not exactly what we have now is it? So now we have to home, educate and look after a bunch of people from drastically different cultures at significant expense. EU immigration provided a net benefit to our economy. Now we’ve got hundreds of thousands of useless people coming over the border who we can’t practically accommodate.
N3KR0VULPES on
Nothing will change until neoliberalism as a whole is rejected and replaced.
Astriania on
Today’s problems are the result of not taking this seriously for the last 20 years, and the much bigger failure to control it in the last 10 will have much bigger problems when those people get old.
Permanent immigration should be for the “best and brightest” as politicians like to say, and nobody else, while we have such high population pressure and demand for housing.
This will require some significant changes to the expectations of old people to stop working and be funded for 20+ years by the taxpayer, but that will have to happen at some point anyway.
We also need to find a solution to the very large numbers of people claiming asylum who have absolutely no reason to travel all the way to the UK to do that, but that’s for a different thread.
concretepigeon on
The border tsar saying this now reflects a shift in public opinion meaning they feel safe enough to mention it rather than any change in the situation.
MaltDizney on
Bit late on the ol’ daily migrant thread folks. Still getting back into the swing for the new year? It’s fine, take your time, see you Monday.
eldomtom2 on
Oddly he seems to avoid talking about the ageing population which is the real problem here.
don_crack on
British people knew this. When we saw the impact it was having, the establishment media told everyone to shut up and stop being racist.
Their strategy backfired and we know today they refuse to admit it.
They created distrust in the population in sacrifice for an economic gamble that failed which they refuse to admit and keep sending out their minions in the establishment to counter this legitimate concern.
This indicates Britain has been fracturing from the inside and seems like they want to be propaganda managers in response to public concerns of political tensions they will inevitably keep creating.
Horror_Extension4355 on
It’s become a street level issue for the Uk population. Hard working people see with their own eyes the impact on public services and resources, then also see the rise of the mini-mart, vape shop, barbers economy and the concerns that certain aspects of certain cultures might not be compatible with liberal western values. The wealthy might be shielded from this and the left too stubborn to engage on it but the rest of the population see it all.
12 Comments
“Mass migration has been used to paper over economic issues in Britain and is “storing up longer-run problems”, the UK’s former border tsar has admitted.
Prof Alan Manning said “extremely high” recent levels of net migration would prove costly in the future as people age and draw on public services such as the NHS.
The former head of the Migration Advisory Committee said: “The fiscal effects of immigration are much better in the short-run than they are in the long-run.
Analysis by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has shown that the average low-earning migrant who moves to the UK aged 25 will cost the Government more overall than they contribute in tax from the moment they arrive.
The cost to the public purse will have risen to £150,000 per person by the time they can claim the state pension, according to the fiscal watchdog. This is because low-paid migrants, who the OBR assumes earn half the average wage, use more public services than they contribute in tax.
Mr Manning, who lectures at the London School of Economics, said: “It would be a mistake to look at the current low numbers and say actually, we need to liberalise. That would be to risk repeating the boom-bust cycle that we’ve just been through.”
We need real, meaningful reform to immigration policy. The current way of thinking about immigration is not sustainable for the long-term economic or social wellbeing of the UK.
Nobody will fix the problem and then reform will get into power
It’s a pyramid scheme and will likely collapse within our lifetime. We need to stop relying on GDP as a meaningful figure and find something else to measure success on.
We make it extremely hard for high skilled migrants to settle down for extremely easy for low skilled.
I really don’t know why we dont copy Australia. Let low skilled people come here on a 3 year visa, benefit from the short term economic boom then if they are not needed, kick them out before they become a burden. Everyone wins. These people get a bit of money to send home and we get the immediate tax/filled job without them draining public services.
Right now there are many Indians/Pakistanis who are educated and want to come here and contribute and raise kids who will do the same. Of course there will be the odd nutter but most want of these people want to assimilate and contribute. However they need to jump through the same hoops as someone with basically no English skills.
If you can prove you will be an asset over the lifetime in this country we should welcome you with open arms. However if you can’t, you should not have any chance of settling beyond the first few years of the immediate boost an immigrant brings.
Like I said, an Australian style point system would help out in this regard
We are already in “the future problem” . As soon as we exited the EU, non EU immigration shot up – some 5x the level of EU immigration. EU immigration was never a problem. Skilled people who we needed to come here to do helpful things like build our houses and lay our roads and pick our vegetables… That’s not exactly what we have now is it? So now we have to home, educate and look after a bunch of people from drastically different cultures at significant expense. EU immigration provided a net benefit to our economy. Now we’ve got hundreds of thousands of useless people coming over the border who we can’t practically accommodate.
Nothing will change until neoliberalism as a whole is rejected and replaced.
Today’s problems are the result of not taking this seriously for the last 20 years, and the much bigger failure to control it in the last 10 will have much bigger problems when those people get old.
Permanent immigration should be for the “best and brightest” as politicians like to say, and nobody else, while we have such high population pressure and demand for housing.
This will require some significant changes to the expectations of old people to stop working and be funded for 20+ years by the taxpayer, but that will have to happen at some point anyway.
We also need to find a solution to the very large numbers of people claiming asylum who have absolutely no reason to travel all the way to the UK to do that, but that’s for a different thread.
The border tsar saying this now reflects a shift in public opinion meaning they feel safe enough to mention it rather than any change in the situation.
Bit late on the ol’ daily migrant thread folks. Still getting back into the swing for the new year? It’s fine, take your time, see you Monday.
Oddly he seems to avoid talking about the ageing population which is the real problem here.
British people knew this. When we saw the impact it was having, the establishment media told everyone to shut up and stop being racist.
Their strategy backfired and we know today they refuse to admit it.
They created distrust in the population in sacrifice for an economic gamble that failed which they refuse to admit and keep sending out their minions in the establishment to counter this legitimate concern.
This indicates Britain has been fracturing from the inside and seems like they want to be propaganda managers in response to public concerns of political tensions they will inevitably keep creating.
It’s become a street level issue for the Uk population. Hard working people see with their own eyes the impact on public services and resources, then also see the rise of the mini-mart, vape shop, barbers economy and the concerns that certain aspects of certain cultures might not be compatible with liberal western values. The wealthy might be shielded from this and the left too stubborn to engage on it but the rest of the population see it all.