Immigration benefits 'wildly overstated'

From The Telegraph in the UK:

Immigration benefits 'wildly overstated' say Lords

By Tom Whitehead
The Telegraph

The Government's economic arguments for its open door policy were torn apart in the Lords, as they concluded record levels of immigration have left any benefits "small or close to zero".

Members of an influential committee of peers, including two former Chancellors and several former Cabinet ministers, said ministers must set an "explicit target range" for immigration and make rules to keep within that limit.

The attack came in a debate over a scathing report recently published by the Lords Economic Affairs Committee which, step by step, demolished the Government's economic arguments.

Tory former Cabinet Minister Lord Wakeham, who chaired the committee, rejected the Government's claim that immigration is needed to prevent labour shortages as "fundamentally flawed". He told peers yesterday the Government had said immigrants brought large economic benefits to the UK in boosting economic growth, filling job vacancies that Britons could not or would not do and paying more tax than British-born workers.

But there was no evidence of such benefits, which had been "wildly overstated" by ministers.

He added: "The committee found no evidence of these large economic benefits.

"What we did find was serious flaws in the Government's arguments and we concluded that on average the economic benefits of immigration were small and close to zero."

*snip*

The report found certain groups in Britain - the low-paid, some ethnic minorities and some young people looking for a foot on the job ladder - may have suffered because of competition from immigrants.

It said immigrants themselves were often the "biggest winners" of the current policy and dismissed claims that migrants are needed to fill jobs and support the growing demand for pensions. Migrants now account for 12 per cent - or one in eight - of the total workforce.

The peers raised the prospect of cutting the number of partners and other family members allowed to settle in Britain because a relative is already here.

They also warned that the much-trumpeted new points-based immigration system carried a "clear danger of inconsistencies and overlap".

The Government's decision to use GDP as the main measure of immigration's economic contribution was "irrelevant and misleading".

Full article

Once again, we see that immigration has no significant positive impact on the economic welfare of the receiving country's host population.