Migration
Migration:
an economic and social analysis
Home Office
Occasional Paper No. 67, January 2001
by Stephen Glover, Ceri Gott, Anaïs Loizllon, Jonathan Portes, Richard Price, Vasanthi Srinivasan
,Sarah Spencer, Carole Willis
Download:
Download it here from the Home Office
webpage
This was one of
the first serious attempts to study of the social and economic impacts
of migration in the UK. The report, downloadable above, is written to
be accessible to non-economists.
Its findings
challenge the myth that migrants are somehow a drain on the economy,
which has obscured objective policy debate for decades. In particular
we find that:
- Migrants experience mixed success in the
labour market, but on average earn more than the existing population,
contributing to economic growth.
- There is little evidence that migration
damages the employment prospects of existing resident workers, although
more research is needed in this area. The research suggests that
migrants fill labour market gaps reducing inflationary pressures and
improving productivity.
- Migrants make significant cultural and
social contributions to UK society, including a
widening of consumer choice and the contributions of many notable
figures in the arts, academia, medicine, science and sport.
- Reduced transport and transaction costs
and increased economic integration, as a result of globalisation, have
led to increased flows of people around the world in recent years, both
to and from the UK.
- There is a need for more research in this
area - indeed, it is striking how little
research on migration there has been in the UK. In particular we need
more analysis into the congestion and regeneration effects of
migration, any distributional implications, the social contribution
made by migrants, and the implications of migration for source
countries.
The pathbreaking
approach developed in this report has since been replicated and updated
by academic and government researchers.
|
|
