Immigration from Europe 'cost the British taxpayer £3m a day' last year
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/16/immigration-from-europe-cost-the-british-taxpayer-3m-a-day-last/Border check: European immigration cost Britain £1.2bn last year, says report
David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent
17 May 2016 • 12:01am
European immigrants to Britain cost the taxpayer £3 million a day last year, according to a new analysis.
MigrationWatch UK, which campaigns for tougher border controls, said the overall cost of immigration from Europe – including recent arrivals and those who have lived here many decades - was £1.2 billion last year.
The sum was calculated by deducting the cost of benefits and public services, such as the NHS, which were consumed by migrants from the amount of money they contributed to the Exchequer through tax.
In another important finding, the new research said immigrants who have arrived since 2001 – including hundreds of thousands of arrivals from the eastern European countries which joined the EU from 2004 – had been “cost neutral” to Britain.
"EU migration, taken as a whole, is not making the positive fiscal contribution that has so often been claimed"Lord Green
Those coming here in the last 15 years contributed as much to the economy as they took out in welfare payments and public services, according to MigrationWatch’s calculations.
Within that group eastern European migrants cost the Exchequer £2.8 billion in 2014-15 but this deficit was cancelled out by a £2.8 billion surplus generated by migrants from other European countries such as France and Spain.
Lord Green of Deddington, Migrationwatch’s chairman, said: “This report shows that EU migration, taken as a whole, is not making the positive fiscal contribution that has so often been claimed.
“Furthermore, it is adding to the rapidly increasing pressures on housing and public services.
“It also contributes to our population increase of half a million every year - roughly a city the size of Liverpool.”
The paper also looked at all types of immigration from across the world, which will include arrivals from Commonwealth countries in the post-war waves of immigration.
MigrationWatch concluded the cost to the Exchequer was far greater than European-based migration.
Last year migrants from all parts of the world cost the British Exchequer £17 billion, or £46.5 million a day, reflecting the fact that migrants who arrived in the 1960s, for example, are now pensioners with greater healthcare costs.
MigrationWatch said it had based its research on methods similar to those used in a 2014 report by University College London’s (UCL) Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, which said iimmigration from Europe gave the economy a £4.4 billion boost between 1995 and 2011.
However, the UCL report found that fiscal contributions from Europe were in decline in the final three years of that period, said MigrationWatch.
The new study concluded that decline had continued, leading to the £1.2 billion cost of European migration over the 12 months from April 2014 to March 2015.
The MigrationWatch report said: “The [UCL]finding that recent immigrants have made substantial net contributions to public finances, appears to have resulted from the strong economic growth in the UK leading up to the recession in 2008.
“These net contributions were not maintained in the subsequent years.
“Furthermore, the present analysis of the contribution made in 2014/15 suggests that the subsequent recovery from recession has not resulted in a return to a positive contribution.”
Arguments for and against
The key arguments for and against staying in the EU - in a nutshell
IMMIGRATION
Leave:
Britain can never control immigration until it leaves the European Union, because freedom of movement gives other EU citizens an automatic right to live here.
Stay:
Leaving will not solve the migration crisis but bring it to Britain’s doorstep because border controls from the Continent will move from Calais in France to Dover in UK.
CRIME
Leave:
The European Arrest Warrant allows British citizens to be sent abroad and charged for crimes in foreign courts, often for minor offences. Exit would stop this.
Stay:
Rapists, murders and other serious criminals who convict offences in Britain can only be returned once fleeing abroad thanks to the European Arrest Warrant. Exit would stop justice being done.
TRADE
Leave:
Britain’s links with the EU are holding back its focus on emerging markets – there is no major trade deal with China or India, for example. Leaving would allow the UK to diversify its international links.
Stay:
44 per cent of Britain’s exports go to other EU countries. Putting up barriers with the countries that Britain trades with most would be counterproductive.
LAW
Leave:
Too many of Britain’s laws are made overseas by dictates passed down from Brussels and rulings upheld by the European Court of Justice. UK courts must become sovereign again.
Stay:
The exit campaign has over-exaggerated how many laws are determined by the European Commission. It is better to shape EU-wide laws from the inside rather than walking away.
JOBS
Leave:
The danger to jobs has been over-exaggerated. By incentivising investment through low corporation tax and other perks Britain can flourish like the Scandinavian countries outside the EU.
Stay:
Around three million jobs are linked to the EU and will be plunged into uncertainty if voters plump for exit, as businesses would be less likely to invest if the country was outside Europe.
CLOUT
Leave:
Britain does not need the EU to prosper internationally. By re-engaging with the Commonwealth the UK can have just as much clout as it does from inside the EU.
Stay:
Britain will be “drifting off into the mid-Atlantic” if it leaves the EU, as Nick Clegg likes to say. In a globalising world the UK’s interests are best protected by remaining part of the EU block, with American and Chinese leaders indicating as much.
FINANCE
Leave:
Talk of capital flight is nonsense. London will remain a leading financial centre outside the EU and banks will still want to be headquartered in Britain due to low tax rates.
Stay:
Banks will flee the UK and the City of London collapse if Britain votes for exit, because the trading advantages of being inside the EU help boost banks' profits.
SOVEREIGNTY
Leave:
The British Parliament is no longer sovereign. With the EU hell-bent on “ever closer union” and further economic integration likely after the euro crisis, it is best to call it quits before ties deepen.
Stay:
In a globalised world, every country must work closer with others if the want to flourish economically. A Little Englander desire for isolation will undermine the UK, plus the PM might have won an opt-out to “ever closer union” come the referendum.
DEFENCE
Leave:
Britain could soon be asked to contribute to a EU Army, with reports suggesting Angela Merkel may demand the Prime Minister’s approval in return for other concessions. That would erode the UK’s independent military force and should be opposed.
Stay:
European countries together are facing the threats from Isil and a resurgent Russia. Working together to combat these challenges is best – an effort that would be undermined if Britain turns its back on the EU.
