Immigration: who pays?

How long before the row about an amnesty for illegal immigrants currently taking place in the United States comes here? Not that long, I reckon.

Some indication of the political pressure of the immigration issue now being felt in Labour seats is the extraordinary intervention of Margaret Hodge on housing, saying things that a few years ago were the preserve only of the National Front.

Hodge's proposal that the indigenous population should receive public housing preference over immigrants, attracted heated condemnation from people (such as Andrew O'Hagan in the Telegraph) who say that it is disgraceful to treat legal immigrants in a discriminatory fashion. And I see his point. But this just produces an argument for greater immigration control, so that the housing discrimination takes place where Mr O'Hagan can't see it. In other words, instead of people being allowed to migrate here and then housed less well than existing residents, they are left poorly housed in another country.

One thing is quite clear from the US debate. There are economic benefits to migration (low cost labour making goods and services cheaper) and they are spread across the population. But there are also costs (sharing public services, wage competition and so forth) and they are concentrated. It is the already economically disadvantaged who pay the penalty in the short to medium term.

US immigration expert George Borjas is blogging now and draws our attention to this:

A new NBER study suggests that immigration has more far-reaching consequences than merely depressing wages and lowering employment rates of low-skilled African-American males: its effects also appear to push some would-be workers into crime and, later, into prison...

The fact that it's the poor that pay partly explains why the Tories haven't won votes on the issue.

Comments

[Amol Rajan]

The debate is already raging in this country: the Strangers into Citizens campaign, organized by London Citizens, marched through the capital a fortnight ago. Dozens of MP's and leading businesses back the plan for an illegal amnesty, which would be an unalloyed good.

The claim that the poor are hardest hit by immigration is a pernicious and ubiquitous falsehood. Immigrants do jobs that natives cannot or will not do, and make services cheaper for all. The economist Phillipe Legrain has made this case irrefutably in his recent book on the subject.

[arahman]

Amol;

It is just not true that immmigrant do the jobs the poorest can't and won't do. Young people, born here of what ever ethnic background are put off from doing many of the jobs because the wages are so low. Also, with a constant stream of cheap labour the government has no incentive to encourage British young people to train for jobs such as building or carpentry if there is a constant supply of cheap, skilled labour such as there is now. Finally, given some of the awful conditions these new migrants are working under, sometimes paramount to slavery, perhaps it would be better for them in the long term not to encourage them to come here. Especially given the thousands of people dying in the Mediterranean and elsewhere in the effort to migrate to what turns out for many a fictional promised land.

[Dave]

Daniel spare a thought for us Maltese who are being bombarded by illegal daily landings on an island with an area of 246 km² (95 square miles)that is one of the most densly populated islands in the world (402.000,density 1,282 /km²(7th) and anyone who voices their concern is called racist by the political parties and various ngos which in turn is becoming a simmering issue among the people.

[Adam]

"There are economic benefits to migration... and they are spread across the population. But there are also costs ... and they are concentrated."

Simple solution - tax the winners and help the losers. A penny on income tax to pay for enough housing for everyone?

[Nancy]

People comes here under the guise of student visa, and once they have changed their tourist visa into student one, they just seek work and stay here illegal. they get married and have children plus they get child benefit and once the kids are grown up, they can take their case to court and in the end they win against the home office. The government knows this and they turn a blind eye. this country cannot cope any more. Ask someone who use public transport and they will tell you. Member of Parliament do not travel by public transport and they don't care even when they are made aware of the situation.Enough is enough please.