As the statistics show, the migration in the UK has increased in the past years. The past 3 years the number of immigrants in the UK has increased. But there have also been periods that the net migration was stable. In some years, such as 2007/2008 and 2010/2011 the net migration has decreased. This has many causes and many consequences. We’re going to discuss the consequences in the field of economics, education and politics.
Consequences in the field of economics
Based on (un)employment
As the House of Lords reported, there’s not much evidence available to make conclusions. But there’s done lots of research, most inconclusive, but not all.
Most immigrants are immigrants who are looking for jobs. Which is a good thing, since this creates an increase in the labour force. This has benefits for the government’s budget, because the migrants have to pay income tax and will not claim any benefits.
Not only will the labour force increase, also the demand for certain products increases by the coming of immigrants to England. As a result of this phenomenon the demand for labour shall increase too. It all makes sense, since when the total number of people in a country increases, so will the demand for products. This will cause more demand for labour, which will result in less unemployment. So basically, the coming of immigrants to the United Kingdom leads to an increase in both offer and demand for labour.
Another consequence is the fact that migration will lead to a more flexible labour market. As I have already mentioned, most immigrants are looking for a job.
In fact statistics point out that most immigrants who moved to the United Kingdom came for a formal study or work. They will especially look for a job in a particular area. This could be both favourable and unfavourable. It could be favourable if employers are looking for more employees in a specific area. But if not, it’s unfavourable through the eyes of the in the UK-born people. If they are looking for a job in the same specific area, there’s less chance for them to be hired. But again, migrants have different skills and if these different shills are searched for, it’ll be favourable for both employers and employees. The United Kingdom sometimes even seeks for immigrants who will be able to work in a particular area.
Normally a rise in unemployment will result in the arrival of fewer immigrants to a country. However, the UK’s unemployment hasn’t resulted in a lower percentage of immigrants. The last few years the arrival of immigrants has had its ups and downs, but overall it can be seen as an increase.
In 1998 the United Kingdom was placed fifth at the list of economical mighty and countries. And when looking at the GDP per head, the UK wasn’t even listed in the top twenty.
According to research by the UCL Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), immigrants who came to the UK have paid more in taxes than they have received in benefits. This means the state receives more money than it gives. But other researched show different conclusions.
Another research, done by Professor Christian Dustmann and Dr Tommaso Frattini, makes clear that immigrants who arrived in the country since 2000 have contributed more than £20 billion to public finances in 10 years.
From the above you could conclude immigration brings a lot positive effects on the economy, but there also is evidence to show that some immigration has had negative effect on the employment of UK-born workers. Some sectors in particular have suffered more than others by the arrival of immigrants. One of those sectors is the IT industry. This sector is suffering from a skills shortage. The problem is finding suitable candidates for jobs in this area. Migrants may be able to work in this sector, but for most jobs very skilled employees are needed. Though, if the country seeks for skilled people, they could also seek for skilled immigrants who will be able to do this kind of work right away. But that’s only possible if they ask for those migrants, and the companies are willing to share their knowledge with the United Kingdom.
It can be seen as a good thing that immigrants take jobs in the country, but it’s said that the immigration has harmed the earnings of the poorly-paid workers born in the UK. Since many immigrants are less skilled, they get to do the less-skilled jobs. Which is unfavourable for the less-skilled workers born in the UK.
But also the people who’ve just graduated and are searching for a job, will be less likely to actually find a job. Because most jobs will already be taken by the immigrants. The better-educated will probably still find jobs, since the immigrants are more likely to do less skilled jobs. But it’s a fact that jobs taken by immigrants, aren’t available for UK-born people. Unless new jobs are created by the government. But if not, UK-born people will have a higher risk to become unemployed, when more immigrants arrive.
Besides these facts, there’s also the problem of immigrants tending to be less healthy. This can cost the government a lot of money, since they do need health care. Also most immigrants live in low quality houses, compared to inhabitants born in the United Kingdom.
Consequences in the field of economics
Based on GDP per head
The Migration Advisory Committee has investigated two questions to find out what the reduction of immigration would lead to, if you look at the GDP per head.
• What sort of impact does immigration overall have?
• What is the likely impact on GDP per head of skilled migrants?
MAC’s answer to the first question:
“HM Treasury estimated that a reduction in annual net migration of 50,000 could result in a negligible one year reduction in GDP per capita growth”
MAC’s answer to the second question:
“Second, we calculate the impact of a reduction in annual net migration of 10,000 on GDP per capita growth, by calculating GDP per head both before and after the reduction in annual net migration, and examining the change. We estimate that the one year impact of a reduction in net migration of 10,000 on GDP per capita growth would be -0.027 percentage points.” So 0,027 percent lower, which is about £5,81(assuming the UK’s GDP per head in 2010 was around £21,500).
This said, you can conclude the impact of the arrival of immigrants on the GDP per capita growth is very small. Which matches the conclusion of the report of the Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Lords from 2008.
Research that has been done concludes many different things. ONS (Office for National Statistics) published official data on UK’s employment in June 2011. This showed that over the year to the end of March 2011 most of the jobs created in England had been taken by migrants:
“The number of people born in the United Kingdom in employment was 25,09 million in the three months to March 2011, up 77.000 on a year earlier. The number of non-UK born people in employment was 4,04 million, up 334.000 from a year earlier. Between the end of the first quarter of 1997 and the first quarter of 2011, there were almost 2,9 million additional persons employed in the UK, of whom almost three quarters – 2,1 million – were born outside the UK.”
Consequences in the field of economics
Based on wage distribution
Research done by MAC ( Migration Advisory Committee) didn’t point out any impacts of migration on the average wage in the UK. However, it did point out impacts on the wage distribution. MAC stated that migration might be the cause for more inequality in the country looked at the distribution:
“The available empirical evidence finds, on average, little impact of migration on overall wages. In summary, the literature suggests small impacts of migration on average wages but notable effects across the wage distribution. In contrast, the studies do broadly agree that migration is more likely to increase wages at the top of the distribution, and reduce wages at the bottom of the distribution. Consequently, migration may have caused the pay distribution to become more unequal than it otherwise would have been.”
With this said, the EAC (Economic Affairs Committee), the House of Lords and the MAC (Migration Advisory Committee) came to a similar conclusion:
“The available evidence suggests that immigration has had a small negative impact on the lowest-paid workers in the UK, and a small positive impact on the earnings of higher-paid workers.”
Consequences in the field of education
Before we start to talk about immigration and the impact of immigration on education, we’ll look at what the education is like in the United Kingdom. In the UK, just like in the Netherlands, children between the age of 5 and 16 must take part in full time education. At the age of 3 or 4, children in the UK must follow 12,5 hours pre-school education per week. And this for 38 weeks of the year.
Important to know, is that immigrants who wish to study in the United Kingdom, will need a visa before they actually have a chance on doing so.
After pre-school the children will go to a school till the age of 16. The school years are divided into four stages. At the end of most stages the children have to make several national tests to check if they are ready for the next year. The school after pre-school includes both primary- and secondary school. In these stages all children will be teached the same subjects and topics. These are stipulated by the National Curriculum, and every single school in the country is obliged to follow this. Between the ages of 14 and 16, the children will be taking GCSE examinations. And just like in our own country, these depend on the subjects the child has chosen and what they want to do/become in the future. From the age of 17 children have a choice to stay in education, or go on to higher education.
To become a student at an university, you have to be chosen by the university itself. To achieve this, you have to list a number of colleges or universities you would like to go to. Next the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) will distribute your list to the institutions you’ve chosen. Whether you get accepted or not, is to be decided by the universities. Some universities make their decision based on your application form, and others may invite you for an interview.
Possible negative consequences
The arrival of immigrant students/children can have a negative impact on the quality of education of natives. But this is only the case if you look at specific ways of immigration. Par example: it is not in favour of native students, if teachers slow down their instruction pace, or make their lessons easier to make sure the immigrants can follow up with the lessons. This is, however, what most teacher will do, they will teach based on the average student. This is in favour of the immigrants, but not of the UK-born students. And besides this, the expectations the teacher had before the arrival of the immigrant students may lower. Since he/she will not only teach, based on the average student, but also wage his expectations based on the average student. This is only an example of one of the consequences immigration has on education.
Another example is that the immigrants may feel more isolated compared to their classmates. These children don’t know anybody yet, and most of them can’t speak English, which means they can’t really communicate with the other children. This means, that the immigrants are, not only not able to communicate with their classmates, they’re also not able to communicate with the teacher. And coming back on the previous example; this will lead to less qualitative lessons, since the teacher wants everyone to understand what he/she is trying to say.
These are only some examples, for it is really hard to draw a clear conclusion since data (by Home Office) show that around 80 per cent of the student immigrants have no legal permission to remain in the United Kingdom. However, it is unclear what per cent of these immigrants is actually still in the UK and what per cent isn’t. But fact is that immigration can bring some negative consequences with it.
Possible positive consequences
But, there is another side we have not looked at yet. Because immigration can also improve education. One of the main positive effects of immigration for native students is that they will also see other cultures, and find out there’s more than just them and their country. The native students can help the immigrants by teaching them about the English language and culture, and the immigrants can help the native students by showing them other ways of doing things. They can help them within the cultural area. This is very important, since nowadays the world tends to get smaller and smaller. Globalisation is doing its round everywhere. You can’t begin soon enough with teaching children about other countries and cultures, because it is something they will grow old with.
Besides that, it’s a fact that non-UK students have to contribute more to join an university. Of course not all immigrants who come to the UK will go to an university, but those of them who do, have to pay more than an UK-born student. Some articles even state that the United Kingdom needs immigrants. Not only for to contribution they pay for joining an university, but also to share their experiences. Another country, doesn’t only mean another person, it also means another nature, another political system, other food, and most important other knowledge. Knowledge they may never have heard of in the United Kingdom. Knowledge that can be used very well. So why not share this knowledge with other countries?
As Peter Scott says: “It would be interesting to know how much of the world-beating research was undertaken by and how many of the highly cited publications were produced by people born outside the UK. If we had to depend solely on homegrown talent, our universities would certainly be much diminished on the world stage.”
What social demographic issues are there?
Of course the arrival of immigrants isn’t without consequences. The social impact of immigration has usually been seen as negative. A Home Office research has pointed out that this leads to anti-social behaviour as a result of overcrowding.
A certain amount of immigrants can do no harm, and can benefit the country. But uncontrolled immigration can only cause problems for the country and its residents.
As we already notice in the Netherlands nowadays, immigration has a big impact on people and their daily lifes. Immigration is a highly discussed subject among people. And not only is it something we talk about, it’s also something that influences us. As we already said, it influences children and students, but it also influences the relation between cities and neighborhoods. In and around areas where the immigrants are given place, there’s usually more tension between immigrants and local people. Especially when a lot of immigrants arrive at the same time. This leads to overcrowding in, par example, small places. For instance, when UK-born people go to the supermarket, and they only see immigrants and are disturbed by them. This can cause trouble between the immigrants and locals, since a small town suddenly can become a small town with too many people. And sometimes even violence is used by one, or both sides. If this is a phenomenon that will occur more than a few times, it’s something the country should be worried about. Since this can lead to the loss of the benefits immigrations brings along. The report, done by the Home Office, showed that the areas that suffered most from the impact of immigration, where the industrial towns.
Through the eyes of local authorities
Also local authorities stated that in some areas, immigrants and asylum seekers were more involved in ‘petty’ crimes than the UK-born people. With ‘petty’ crimes, low-level crimes, such as shoplifting, driving offences, and anti-social/disorderly behavior are meant. Of course small crimes are also committed by UK-born people, but in general the majority of these crimes are committed by immigrants. An accumulation of all these small crimes, causes even more tension. Not only tension between locals and immigrants, but also among locals as a group. The anti-social behavior some immigrants (especially refugees, asylum seekers and low-skilled immigrants) bring with them, strengthens this phenomenon.
This too, will lead to more tension in communities since. Drunk people tend to get aggressive faster. With all its consequences. Since aggression leads to more trouble between the residents. And this will of course lead to more tension in communities.
Nowadays the number of immigrants is increasing in almost every single country in Europe. And the UK deals with this ‘problem’ too. At the Home Office’s Migration Impacts Forum it was said that immigration has most impact on 5 areas: crime, health, community cohesion, education and housing. More than half of the regions(eight in total) that have compiled the reports, pointed out they had seen some trouble, looking at education and crime. Besides this, a total number of seven regions said they were concerned about the issue of housing, based on the increase of the total number of immigrants.
However, it’s not only negative consequences immigrants bring with them. As we have already said, the local economy can take advantage of the work that is done by immigrants. Besides this, the government is suggesting to make some adjustments in the field of the integration of immigrants. The government seeks after minimizing problems, providing English lessons to immigrants and help them with integrating into communities. It’s all about finding the balance between the negative social impacts and ‘positive’ economic impacts.
Another positive consequence is that the arrival of immigrants will, at the same time, result in more providers of foreign stores and services. For example: Asian food markets, Turkish baths, etcetera. This will not only help the economy, but also bring the UK-born people and the immigrants closer to each other. The natives will appreciate the facilities the immigrants bring with them, and will respect them more.
But, the problem the UK is dealing with, is made by the people themselves. The anxiety for the impact immigration may have on the community is created by the UK-born people. Discrimination and racism is a way people sometimes express this anxiety. The way people look at each other is not as British citizens, but as Muslims, Jews, African etcetera.
One of the consequences that this brings along is that the tension between the minority groups and the state has decreased. But at the same time the tension between those groups among each other has increased. This is a result of the fact that each group wants to expand their faith and beliefs.
This said, it’s important to keep in charge that not every area within the UK has experienced the same level of immigration. As the chart below shows, not London is the great leader if we talk about the percentage of foreign born people, and the North East and Wales are at the bottom.
The next chart shows the percentage of people born abroad in different areas in the UK.