How Our Journalists Have Failed Britain on Migration
A sea of disinformation, muddle and confusion.
Immigration is a huge concern for many people, The UK media has pushed the issue up the agenda, particularly the right-wing press, which deliberately creates a false narrative about what is happening, and why. Broadcast media may attempt a more balanced approach, but fail to explain because too few journalists take the trouble to get the statistics, or understand the economics. Many politicians are not much better.
The UK population is just over 68 million. The growth rate is 0.49%. Net migration is 3.2 per 1000 population, temporarily high for predictable reasons. When the UK decided to leave the EU, hundreds of thousands a EU citizens left and far fewer arrived. The pandemic caused a big hiatus in international movement, affecting migration for work and study.
The UK had a similar percentage of migrants to other developed nations, for much the same reasons. An estimated 10,388,000 people in England and Wales were not born in the UK, approximately 14.8% of the population. The need for doctors, nurses, care workers, skilled people etc. was addressed by the work visa scheme, and international student numbers in universities returned to 680,000, about 220,000 arriving and leaving per year, the biggest group being from China.
(It is worth pointing out that international students pay the full cost of their annual education up front, and must demonstrate access to sufficient funds for their accommodation and living costs. Their attendance is monitored by the Home Office. The oft repeated trope that they slope off to become Uber drivers is farcical; they could not earn enough to cover their outlay, let alone make a living in a UK city.)
Why do developed nations need migrants?
The short answer is demographics. Birth rates have fallen for many years. Economics, careers, lifestyle choice, all possible explanations, but the net result is fewer people entering the workforce. At the other end of the age span life expectancy has increased by around a decade. Digging a little deeper, we education the young for longer, so people don't start working until they are 18, or 21 for 40% in the UK.
Retirement is happening from age 60 to 67 or so, but people can expect longer in retirement than 25 or 30 years ago, drawing state pension and from late middle age requiring more frequent health care and often social support or sustained nursing care. Education, health and care cost taxpayers.
Migration fills the skill gap, which is incredibly important. Almost on in 5 (19%0 of NHS staff and social care staff are not British, but vitally 35% of doctors and 27.2% of Nurses are not British. Far from migration putting a strain on our health services, migration is preventing a total collapse. Farage claimed that NHS staff were all bringing dependants, but apart from doctors most don’t earn enough to be allowed to. In the work visa scheme overall, only about 10% of applications are for dependents.
Migration is also filling the financial gap. Roughly speaking, a person who is born in a country, remains there and dies there makes a zero net contribution, on average. Migrants arrive educated and trained, mostly stay for a few years then leave. On the work visa scheme, they pay £732 for an annual visa and pay full UK tax, have no resort to any state funding (no child allowance, to benefits of any kind) and must pay an up-front annual NHS surcharge of £1,035, with their employer paying a further £,1000 for the right to use the NHS. (Migrants typical have fairly low demand for health care by virtue of relative youth. This amounts to good business for a government. Almost 1 in 7 (14%) of UK taxpayers were not born in the UK.
Immigration is highly controlled in the UK. The number of people who are granted indefinite right to remain is much smaller than migration. 119,150 in 2023. In the same year 532,000 migrated from the UK. How long the recent migrants remain in the UK is an interesting question. Historic trends suggest an average of 4 or 5 years, with a small percentage staying up to 8 years. . Circumstances may change for some people who apply to remain, if they qualify.
What about asylum applications? Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan have slowed and fallen. The backlog of unprocessed arrivals will be reduced with some being accepted and others deported. The numbers are not hard to manage if they are not just left to fill up any available accommodation over a period of 30 months. Most want to work; many have family in the UK and some are skilled and well qualified. Once a sensible arrangement is made with France and the EU, it is not a big problem in the long run.