EU migrants contribute £20bn to UK economy, study finds

Contrary to the popular view that European immigrants are a burden to UK taxpayers, a new study by University College London has found that people arriving from the EU contributed £20 billion to the British economy between 2000 and 2011.

The study also found that immigrants from the so-called new Europe – the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 including Poland, Romania and Turkey – added £4.96 billion more to the public purse in taxation between 2004 and 2011 than they took out in benefits.

The study, the Fiscal Impact of Immigration to the UK, also found that immigrants arriving from continental Europe are better educated than the UK population at large; 60 per cent of arrivals from southern and western Europe and 25 per cent of those arriving from eastern Europe have university degrees. This compares with 24 per cent of the UK-born workforce.

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Professor Christian Dustmann, co-author of the study, said: "A key concern in the public debate on migration is whether immigrants contribute their fair share to the tax and welfare systems. Our new analysis draws a positive picture of the overall fiscal contribution made by recent immigrant cohorts, particularly of immigrants arriving from the EU."

Dustmann added: "European immigrants, particularly, both from the new accession countries and the rest of the European Union, make the most substantial contributions. This is mainly down to their higher average labour market participation compared with natives and their lower receipt of welfare benefits."

The report also found that migrants from outside the EU cost the public purse nearly £120bn between 1995 and 2011, the Daily Telegraph reports. Over the same period, "native Britons made a negative contribution of £591 billion over the 17 years – because of the country’s massive deficit," the paper says.

Overall the report shows that "European migrants to the UK are not a drain on Britain’s finances and pay out far more in taxes than they receive in state benefits,"The Guardian says.

However, critics accused the study of being "shallow," arguing that it does not take into account the long-term costs of migration.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of research association Migration Watch, told the BBC: "If you take all EU migration including those who arrived before 2001 what you find is this: by the end of the period they are making a negative contribution and increasingly so."