Research shows migrants could be good for the economy

The Institute for Public Policy Research is encouraging immigration officials to rethink the new immigration policies which are now stricter than before.  The group claims migrants can boost the economy and that businesses in the UK can benefit from them being there.  As migrants often only stay in the country for a brief time the full economic potential of them as yet to be discovered. 

A report released by the House of Lords contradicted the claims that migrants could in fact boost the economy.  Their report claimed that migrants had "little or no impact."

A research fellow with The Institute for Public Policy Research, Laura Chappell, hinted that the new points based immigration system the government was introducing had some drawbacks. "Under the new system, no low-skilled migrants will be allowed into the UK from outside the EU. That is a large amount of people who are being written off ... but who add a huge amount to the diversity of an area and local economy.  We're also worried that the system is based on a short-term economic analysis of what migrants bring to a country ... A migrant may be entrepreneurial once they have arrived in this country - ie, they 'create' a skill. We just don't know," said Chappell.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said "Migrant labor is by no means the only solution to our tight labor market. The National Skills Strategy was launched to address the needs of our domestic labor force."

www.ippr.org