There was an interesting
article in The Spectator by Professor Paul Collier
of Oxford University, discussing immigration, and making some important points
showing it is not entirely true to claim the economy needs mass immigration. He
argues:
Inchoately, many people sense that ever-rising
population would threaten our environment, while ever-rising diversity would
threaten our cohesion. Trotting out exaggerated claims of the economic benefits
of immigration talks past these concerns. In doing so, it plays into the
corrosive populist idea that political elites are disconnected from
reality.
He argues that
immigrants, over their whole lives, will receive more from the state than they
pay in taxes, unless they earn above-average incomes, and consequently a
snapshot taken early in their working lives, when they are not receiving
pensions and other expensive forms of care, does not show that such people will,
over their whole lives, “contribute”.
