Two pieces in the FT today.
Number of foreign workers rises
Migrants give boost to public finances
However, right at the end of the second piece is an interesting quote.
And there is evidence of at least one industry where foreign arrivals are taking the jobs of skilled local workers: the IT sector. British contractors have bemoaned the fact that Indian technology companies appear to be getting around immigration rules by using so-called intra-company transfers to bring in staff who undercut them on price.
“There is an argument, and quite a convincing one, that these Indian workers are displacing local people,” a government adviser said.
Number of foreign workers rises
British business has continued to hire more foreign workers during the downturn even as the number of UK-born people in jobs has dropped sharply, analysis by the Financial Times shows.
A study by Christian Dustmann, head of the centre for research and analysis on migration at University College London, supports the claim that immigrants – at least those who come to the UK to work – put more into the economy than they take out.
In the year to April 2009 workers from eastern Europe paid £1.37 in taxes for every £1 of services they used, Mr Dustmann found. That compared to an 80p contribution from native Britons.
“There is no evidence that migrants are a drain on public services, rather the opposite,” Mr Dustmann said.
In the year to April 2009 workers from eastern Europe paid £1.37 in taxes for every £1 of services they used, Mr Dustmann found. That compared to an 80p contribution from native Britons.
“There is no evidence that migrants are a drain on public services, rather the opposite,” Mr Dustmann said.
And there is evidence of at least one industry where foreign arrivals are taking the jobs of skilled local workers: the IT sector. British contractors have bemoaned the fact that Indian technology companies appear to be getting around immigration rules by using so-called intra-company transfers to bring in staff who undercut them on price.
“There is an argument, and quite a convincing one, that these Indian workers are displacing local people,” a government adviser said.
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