Mass migration ‘will wreck the dream of a high-wage Britain’

MASS migration will undermine the Conservative vision for a high-wage economy, one of Britain’s most respected economists has warned.

Professor Robert Rowthorn, a long- standing adviser to Whitehall, said the influx of large numbers of unskilled foreigners was ‘damaging’ the job prospects and wages of millions of British workers.

He said the economic advantages of immigration – which were ‘unlikely to be very large’ – could be achieved with net migration at 50,000 a year. Currently, it stands at a record 336,000.

Professor Rowthorn’s findings, in a major report for the Civitas think-tank, will be a blow to ministers who were this week accused of encouraging mass migration to help balance the country’s books.

The explosive claim was made by Nick Timothy, a former spe- cial adviser to Home Secretary Theresa May, after it emerged the Treasury is banking on more than a million extra migrants pouring into Britain by 2020-21.

The increase in the workforce would create billions of pounds extra for the country, dragging Britain back in the black.

But far from suggesting the UK would be better off, the report said the amount of money per person would remain broadly similar because there would be so many more people living in the UK.

Professor Rowthorn, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Cambridge University, said mass immigration would lead to ‘losers as well as winners… and the losers are those at the lower end of the pay scale.’

He explained: ‘In rich countries many dirty, hard or low status jobs are increasingly occupied by migrants from poorer countries. These are said to be doing the jobs that native workers will not do.

‘In practice this often means that suitable native workers will not do these jobs at the wages and conditions that employers are willing to offer.

‘There is evidence that competition from immigrants may result in lower wages for low skilled local workers, including previous immigrants.’ Professor Rowthorn said a key economic benefit of immigration was increasing the number of working-age people to support an ageing population.

But he warned the impact must be ‘set against the costs’ of the growing pressure on infrastructure, housing and services.

Therefore, net migration of 50,000 a year would produce sim- ilar economic advantages to the UK as a figure that runs at nearly six times that level, he said.

‘ The economic gains from large- scale immigration come mainly from its impact on the age structure of the population.

‘Most of these gains could be achieved with a much lower rate of net migration... than the UK is currently experiencing,’ he said.

He also predicted the population of the UK will go up by 20million over the next 50 years and 29million over the next 75 years.

George Osborne has repeatedly referred to his plans for a ‘low tax, low welfare, high wage economy’. The government hopes that the new National Living wage will compensate for benefits cuts and permit generous tax reductions in turn.

Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of MigrationWatch, said: ‘ This landmark report is the nail in the coffin for claims that mass immigration is good for Britain.’

‘Losers at lower end of pay scale’