MASS immigration has not made Britain more productive, the Government’s top expert admitted yesterday.
Migration Advisory Committee chairman Prof Brian Bell warned: “Having more immigrants makes the economy bigger — it doesn’t necessarily make us more productive.”
Mass immigration has not made Britain more productive, a government expert admitted
Prof Brian Bell said: ‘Inevitably if net migration is positive and we are adding to the size of the population that puts pressure on housing’
His comments come ahead of official statistics due to be published on Thursday that will show record numbers of arrivals in the UK.
He said it was “unambiguously true” tens of thousands of foreign students was “enormously positive” and had an “economic benefit”, but warned of downsides.
He told the BBC: “Inevitably if net migration is positive and we are adding to the size of the population that puts pressure on housing.”
And he said the benefits of a large foreign workforce were more complex than seeing the national output measure Gross Domestic Product (GDP) go up.
He said: “The thing we should be interested in is GDP per person . . . the broad conclusion from the last 20 to 30 years is that it doesn’t make an enormous effect.
“Good or bad immigrants are just like us, just as productive or unproductive as we are.”
The Migration Advisory Committee sets levels of visa for foreign workers in sectors that need help from overseas labour.
