Immigrants from new EU members contribute more to UK than they take

Immigrants from new EU states generate a positive overall fiscal contribution to the United Kingdom (UK), according to new research.

According to a report published by University College London’s Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, UK-based immigrants from countries which joined the European Union (EU) in 2004 added £4.96bn more to the economy than they took out in the years to 2011.

Migrants from these Eastern European countries make more substantial contributions than migrants from the rest of the EU.

Co-author of the study Professor Christian Dustmann noted that these recent migrant cohorts show "higher than average labor market participation compared with natives and […] lower receipt of welfare benefits."

However, the study was quickly criticized for being misleading.

Migration Watch Chairman Sir Andrew Green argued that: "If you take all EU migration including those who arrived before 2001 what you find is this: you find by the end of the period they are making a negative contribution and increasingly so."

The new report provides more kindling to the migration debate in the UK.

Anzelika Zaiceva has written in detail about post-enlargement emigration and new EU members’ labor markets. She finds that increased labor mobility with the EU has contributed to increasing wages and decreasing unemployment in EU member states.

Meanwhile, Klaus F. Zimmermann discusses the broader benefits of migration, commenting that free worker mobility can fill labor shortages and enhance human capital to profit both sending and receiving countries.

Read the full report here.

Related articles:
Post-enlargement emigration and new EU members’ labor markets, by Anzelika Zaiceva
Circular migration, by Klaus F. Zimmermann
The welfare magnet hypothesis and the welfare take-up of migrants, by Corrado Giulietti