3.4.3.3  Moving People €“ Economic Migration

(This is an archived page, from Edition 2 of the Patterns of Power book.  The current versions is at https://www.patternsofpower.org/patterns/economic/subsidiarity/labour/immigration/).

Moving people, to places where work is available, creates problems.  Cities act as a magnet, attracting people to migrate from the countryside, but almost everywhere there are resulting infrastructure problems €“ and often social problems as well.  Migration of people from one country to another is an even more sensitive problem, though there economic advantages:

·     Immigrants add to the economic capacity of a country.  If the increase can be absorbed, the economy grows and the population benefits:

-- Those who work make an economic contribution; the UK economy gained overall from recent immigrants.[1]

-- Immigrants who pay tax are helping to fund existing government spend programmes, including pensions;

-- They can fill skills shortages, especially if their qualifications are recognised; schemes such as the International Baccalaureate are helpful.

·     The process of immigration is a means of levelling out the supply and demand of labour.  This can help to overcome differences in economic performance within the EU, for example, where London was famously grateful for the presence of Polish plumbers in the early 21st century.[2]  Their customers benefited from lower prices.[3]  Their trade rivals were not pleased, but the influx did not lead to any reported unemployment of plumbers at that time.

·     Immigration can bring innovation benefits by increasing diversity and creating new markets, particularly in big cities.[4]  Immigrants are wealth creators, consumers and taxpayers.  They create new demand for goods and services from existing suppliers and they can revitalise run-down urban areas by setting up new businesses, as with the influx of Mexicans into New Orleans after the 2006 floods.[5]  (Their impact on unemployment in that example was to slightly reduce it overall). 

·     Immigration can drive down wages, particularly for unskilled jobs.  This is a benefit for employers and consumers, but is a threat to those who are competing for these jobs. 

-- The threat can be offset by having a minimum wage (3.3.3.3).

-- If the extra labour is absorbed, and there is no increase in unemployment, no €˜jobs have been lost to immigrants€™. 

·     Trade links can be more easily developed with other countries, by making use of the family networks of immigrants from those countries.[6]

·     Foreign students are potential immigrants with a ready-made path for integration into the destination country.  They accounted for over half of Australian highly-skilled immigration by the early 21^st century, for example.[7] 

·     Migration can benefit the migrants€™ country of origin.  For some poorer economies, such as the Philippines, money sent back home by the migrants is a €œkey plank€� in their economic policy.[8]

But although migration is economically beneficial,[9] it creates political challenges €“ particularly if there are large numbers involved (6.7.4.1).  The political problems, such as housing and education, need to be solved €“ but politicians who inveigh against immigration on economic grounds, for example by repeating the fallacy that €˜they are taking our jobs€™, are dishonest; they also risk inflaming identity politics (6.7.4.2).

© PatternsofPower.org, 2014