EU migrants 'have no negative impact on UK wages’ - LSE

Research shows EU immigration has not adversely impacted jobs and wages, putting changes down to the 2008 crash.

EU immigration has not had a negative impact on wages and job opportunities for UK-born workers, according to a new study by the London School of Economics (LSE).

The research is the fifth in a series of studies that are being published in the lead up to the EU referendum vote on 23^rd June, where the British public will get to decide whether we stay or leave the EU.

The report shows that EU immigration – an issue that lies at the at heart of referendum campaigning – has not had a significantly adverse impact on average jobs, pay or public services for people born in the UK.

Rather the economists say the falls in average real wages and job opportunities for UK-born workers are down to the 2008 global financial crash.

Looking at the evidence

The UK’s membership to the EU means workers from other EU countries are allowed to come work in the UK and vice versa.

The number of immigrants from other EU countries living in the UK more than tripled from 900,000 to 3.3 million between 1995 and 2015, with the jump largely down to the ‘A8’ East European countries like Poland joining in 2004.

UK workers have seen their real wages fall over the past decade, but the LSE economists blamed this on the recession that began in 2008 rather than the surge in EU migrants.

Median real wages for those born in the UK grew from the late 1990s until the global financial crisis. Since then wages have fallen around 10%.

Researchers say that, although the fall happened during a period where EU immigration was rising, the big pre-crash gains for UK workers had also coincided with rising migration. So the report concludes the falls in wages after 2008 are due to the global financial crisis and a weak economic recovery, not to EU immigration.

The evidence also shows that the areas of the UK with large increases in EU immigration did not suffer greater falls in the jobs and pay of UK-born workers.

Earlier this week Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary part of the Leave campaign group, said that uncontrolled migration was adversely impacting Britain’s poorest.

But the report states that there is no evidence to suggest that EU immigration has had any impact on the pay and job opportunities for less-skilled UK workers.

EU immigrants pay more in taxes than they use public services and so are actually helping to reduce the budget deficit according to the report.

LSE also made clear that the refugee crisis hitting the headlines is unrelated to EU membership.

Impact of Brexit

The LSE economists warn ending the free movement of labour would damage the national economy.

The report says EU migrants of which the largest proportion are Polish (29%) are more educated, younger, more likely to be in work and less likely to claim benefits so are a boon to the UK.

Jonathan Wadsworth, one of the co-authors of the study, said: “The bottom line, which may surprise many people, is that EU immigration has not harmed the pay, jobs or public services enjoyed by Britons.

“In fact, for the most part it has likely made us better off. So far from EU immigration being a necessary evil that we pay to get access to the greater trade and foreign investment generated by the EU single market, immigration is at worse neutral and at best, another economic benefit.”

Photo: JuliusKielaitis / Shutterstock.com

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