A major new report suggests that EU immigration contributes around £60 billion to the UK economy, and states that government plans to curb immigration would be a huge mistake.
According to research released by Harvey Nash recruiters and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), workers from EU countries are more likely to work in more senior jobs than British workers while they earn on average £2,035 more than their UK counterparts a year.
Other findings from the report claim that EU migrant workers are more likely to be in work (63.3 per cent) than UK-born citizens (56.2 per cent), and more economically active (69.8 per cent) than UK-born citizens (63 per cent).
“Non-UK EU born workers are bringing much needed skills and value to the UK and there is little evidence that EU immigrants are having a negative impact on wages or unemployment,” said Albert Ellis, CEO of the Harvey Nash Group. “In fact, immigrants are helping to create jobs – a broad and diverse labour market fuels growth as this report shows.”
To this Charles Davis, CEBR Head of Macroeconomics, added: “Non-UK EU-born workers earned £39 billion in total in 2012, bringing a wealth of skills and experience to the UK workforce and adding value to the economy. The departure of such workers for the UK, or new measures to prevent EU migration, could create skill shortages, hold back economic growth and worsen the position of the public finances.”