Migrants Rights Networks' Ruth Grove-White reports on what the latest immigration stats do and don't tell us about the diversity of Britain.
Ruth Grove-White is a policy officer at the Migrants’ Rights Network
Yesterday’s release of statistics about Britain’s ethnic diversity have provoked yet more bellowing about “the changing face of Britain”. But these soundbites are a cheap distraction from the real story – that immigration policy should be looking to respond better to the vast differences in immigration patterns across the UK in recent years.
The latest statistics from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) give a detailed ethnic picture of the populations of England and Wales, broken down according to the 423 local authorities in these countries.
The headline findings relate to the national picture of ethnic diversity. Overall, these figures show an increase in the non ‘White British’ population of England and Wales, from 6.6 million in 2001 to 9.1m in 2009. Most significant growth has been seen in the ‘other White’ category – including both European nationals and people from the US, Australia, and other Commonwealth countries, and in the black African and mixed race groups.
All this should come as no surprise: these figures are reflective of well-known immigration patterns over the past decade, and are likely to be similar to patterns in many other comparable democracies.
However, the latest stats have led MigrationWatch UK to repeat well-rehearsed fears about the ‘changing face’ of Britain due to immigration, and to predict soaring population growth likely to hit 70 million within twenty years.
This sort of scaremongering is too easily trotted out, and adds little value to debate. Such predictions of national population growth are based on patterns over the past decade which has seen an unusual spike in immigration given the admittance of ten new members into European Union – an event unlikely to be repeated any time soon. Forecasts like this should therefore be treated with real caution.
Instead the real story to be told from the ONS findings is, as ever, more complex. These figures tell an important story about developments in local and regional populations across England and Wales. Some of what emerges here is unsurprising. Ethnic diversity is, as it always has been, concentrated in urban centres across the UK, with London, Leicester and Bradford showing well-documented concentrations of ethnic minority populations.
In contrast, over half of the local authorities surveyed – in particular rural areas – still have populations of over 90 per cent white Brits. This shows us that the ‘face of Britain’ (whatever on earth that is) is in fact not subject to major changes across much of England and Wales.
But there have been changes since 2001, which deserve closer examination. These statistics show particular developments in patterns of internal migration, likely to be related to job opportunities and the relative cost of living in different areas across the UK. These figures show that over 600,000 non-‘White Brits’ have, since 2001, moved out of London to go elsewhere across the country. Significant increases in this group are recorded in regions such as the South West, North East and East of England, probably in relation to the availability of casual work in factories and farms in these areas in recent years.
All this shows the value of better understanding the economic and social drivers of internal and international movements, so that we can better anticipate and respond to them. Figures from Scotland and Northern Ireland would also be useful – Scotland in particular is open about its need for more migrants to balance out an ageing population. In general, we might expect a more regional approach to immigration to gain purchase in the coming period, as arguments for policies which respond to local needs and pressures rather than a national ‘one size fits all’ approach are developed.
In this context, the latest offering from the ONS should be used to move away from a generalised national narrative about immigration, to a more nuanced – and accurate – response to migration across the country.
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14 Responses to “Looking at those immigration stats beyond the hysteria”
Eli Davies
RT @leftfootfwd Looking at those immigration stats beyond the hysteria: http://bit.ly/j670lV @migrants_rights Ruth Grove-White
John McGeachy
RT @leftfootfwd: Looking at those immigration stats beyond the hysteria: http://bit.ly/j670lV @migrants_rights Ruth Grove-White
Fred
Guardian did a nice interactive map on this. Worth checking out, as it shows what Ruth is saying. Urban centres are the places where migrants cluster. And exactly as she says, how is that a surprise?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/may/19/ethnic-breakdown-england-wales
Arshia
Ruth, Why pretend to offer obective analysis of immigration statistics? Just admit you like mass immigration and promote policies that encourage more of it. Arshia
Archie Bunker
I AM NOT SAYING DONT CLOSE THE BORDERS. I AM SAYING STOP THE IGNORANCE & HATE.
Read this whos to blame for our economy, its NOT the POOR MIGRANTS.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-keenan/how-the-top-1-percent-cap_b_862305.html?ir=Politics
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/11/statements-support-president-obamas-commitment-fix-our-broken-immigratio
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6942497n&tag=related;photovideo
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/immigration-court-troubled-system-899690.html
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/market-crash-2011-it-will-hit-by-christmas-2011-02-22
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/reagan-insider-gop-destroyed-us-economy-2010-08-10
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42630571
http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/14/pf/taxes/who_pays_income_taxes/
http://mediamatters.org/research/201105170028
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Before you Scream and show Ignorance and Hate at least read the Immigration Law regarding Undocumented Immigrants.
1. Myth: Undocumented immigrants are getting government services for free.
REALITY: They actually give more than they take. Over the past two decades, most studies that have tried to estimate the fiscal impact of immigration in the United States have concluded that the tax revenue generated by immigrants —both legal and undocumented— exceeds the cost of the services they use. Thus, an Economic Report of the President published in 2005 estimated that all immigrants, regardless of status, paid on average US$80,000 per capita more in taxes than the cost of the government services they were expected to use over their lifetime. Stephen C. Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, said that by 2007, the Social Security trust fund had received a net benefit of somewhere between US $120 billion and US $240 billion from undocumented immigrants. That represented 5.4% to 10.7% of the trust fund’s total assets of US$2.24 trillion that year. The Social Security Administration estimates that two-thirds of unauthorized immigrant workers (about 5.6 million people) were paying into the system in 2007. Unauthorized immigrants paid a net contribution of US$12 billion in 2007 alone.
2. Myth: Undocumented workers do not pay taxes.
Reality: They do, and in several different ways. According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the majority of undocumented immigrants pays income tax using, among other mechanisms, Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN’s), while most employers withhold federal, state and local taxes from such workers. In fact, between one-half and three-quarters of undocumented immigrants pay federal and state income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare taxes.Undocumented immigrants pay the same real estate taxes—whether they own homes or taxes are passed on to them through rents—and the same sales and other consumption taxes as everyone else. The majority of state and local costs for schooling and other services is funded by these taxes. Additionally, the U.S. Social Security Administration has estimated that three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay payroll taxes, and that they contribute US$6-7 billion in Social Security funds that they will be unable to claim (Porter 2005). This amount, moreover, keeps accumulating, generating US$6 to US$7 billion in Social Security annual tax revenue, and an additional US$1.5 billion in Medicare taxes. This money, according to the 2008 annual report of the Social Security Board of Trustees, will help reduce the SSA’s projected longterm
deficit by 15%, which is equivalent to a 0.3% rise in the pay roll tax.
3. Myth: Undocumented workers are a burden on the U.S. economy.
Reality: Immigrants not only pay taxes, but they also contribute significantly to the economy.
In a 2007 report, the White House Council of Economic Advisers concluded that, because immigrants increase the size of the total labor force, they complement the U.S. born workforce, and stimulate capital investment by adding workers to the labor pool. Immigration increases the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by roughly US$37 billion each year.9 Given that employment has been the main driver behind undocumented immigration to the U.S. in recent decades, it should come as no surprise that this group is particularly hard working and has a high employment rate (96%).10 Moreover, beyond undocumented immigrants, the Hispanic community as a whole has increasingly contributed to the U.S. economy. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanic owned firms increased by nearly 44 percent between 2002 and 2007, growing from 1.6 million businesses to 2.3 million. Employment at Hispanic-owned firms also grew by 26 percent from 1.5 million to 1.9 million workers, a growth rate significantly higher than that of non-minority-owned firms. Hispanic-owned businesses generated US$345.2 billion in sales in 2007, up 55.5 percent compared with 2002. And finally, of all Hispanic-owned firms with multiple employees, approximately 44,000 have revenues of more than US$1 million, representing an increase of more than 51 percent over 2002.
4. Myth: Undocumented immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans.
REALITY: Undocumented Immigrants differ from U.S. citizens in their economic sectors and occupation.
Among unauthorized immigrants in the labor force, 30% are service workers and 21% are construction workers. An additional 15% are production and installation workers. Two-thirds (66%) of unauthorized immigrant workers are employed in these three broad categories; by contrast, only 31% of U.S.-born workers perform those jobs. Unauthorized immigrants provide an important source of manpower in agriculture, construction, food processing, building cleaning and maintenance, and other similar jobs, at a time when the share of low-skilled, U.S.-born individuals in the labor force has fallen dramatically. Not only do unauthorized immigrants provide an important source of low-skilled labor, but they also respond to market conditions in ways that legal immigration presently cannot. Undocumented inflows broadly track economic performance, rising during periods of expansion, and stalling during downturns. Undocumented immigration is sensitive to labor market demand. Immigrants are more likely to work in seasonal activities, such as agriculture, which suffer the largest job losses during downturns. Therefore, the size of the immigrant population changes in response to economic downturns or expansion. Immigration is not the cause of today’s high unemployment rates. In fact, reliable estimates show that immigration levels —both undocumented and applications for H-1B visas for high-skilled professionals— have fallen along with the economic downturn. In the longer term, however, the U.S. economy is also likely to need immigrant labor as the fertility rate in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is projected to fall below the replacement level by 2015-2020. The number of workers age 55 and over will likely increase by 49%, compared to projected increases of only 5% among those 25 to 54 and 9% among the 16 to 24 age group, creating a gap in the population pyramid between the economically active population and those in retirement age that is likely to be filled by immigrants.
5. MYTH: Undocumented immigrants are a burden to the healthcare system.
REALITY: Quite the contrary, immigrants contribute more than they take.
Federal, state and local governments spend approximately US$1.1 billion annually on healthcare costs for undocumented immigrants, aged 18-64, or approximately US$11 in taxes for each U.S. household. This compares to the US $88 billion spent on all health care for non-elderly adults in the U.S. in 2000. Foreign-born individuals tend to use fewer health care services because they are relatively healthier than their U.S.- born counterparts. For example, in Los Angeles County, “total medical spending on undocumented immigrants was US$887 million in 2000, 6% of total costs, although undocumented immigrants comprise 12 percent of the region’s residents.” A 2007 study based on data from the 2003 California Health Interview Survey found that “undocumented Mexicans and other undocumented Latinos reported less use of health care services and poorer experiences with care compared with their U.S.-born counterparts.” In 2007, the Oregon Center for Public Policy estimated that undocumented immigrants pay state income, excise, and property taxes, as well as federal Social Security and Medicare taxes, which “total about US$134 million to US$187 million annually.” In addition, “taxes paid by Oregon employers on behalf of undocumented workers total about US$97 million to US$136 million annually.” As the report goes on to note, undocumented workers are ineligible for the Oregon Health Plan, food stamps, and temporary cash assistance. A study by the Iowa Policy Project concluded that “undocumented immigrants pay an estimated aggregate amount of US$40 million to US$62 million in state taxes each year.” Moreover, “undocumented immigrants working on the books in Iowa and their employers also contribute annually an estimated US$50 million to US$77.8 million in federal Social Security and Medicare taxes from which they will never benefit. Rather than draining state resources, undocumented immigrants are in some cases subsidizing services that only documented residents can access.”
6. MYTH: Undocumented immigrants are responsible for higher crime rates.
REALITY: Current and historical studies show instead that immigration is associated with lower crime rates and lower incarceration rates.
Since the early 1990s, as the immigrant population, especially the undocumented one, increased to historic highs, the rates of violent crimes and property crimes in the United States decreased significantly, in some instances to historic lows – as measured both by crimes reported to the police and by national victimization surveys. Moreover, data from the Census and a wide range of other empirical studies show that for every ethnic group without exception, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants, even for those who are the least educated. This holds true especially for the Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans who make up the bulk of the
undocumented population. These patterns have been observed consistently over the last three decennial censuses, a period that spans the current era of high immigration. One can also recall similar national level findings reported by three major government commissions during the first three decades of the 20th century. The lowest incarceration rates among Latin American immigrants are seen for the groups who account for the majority of the undocumented: the Salvadorans and Guatemalans (0.52 percent), and the Mexicans (0.70 percent).
THE BOTTOM LINE: Undocumented immigrants are an important component of the U.S. economy. They meet the labor demand in sectors in which they do not directly compete with U.S.-born workers. The great majority of migrant workers are taxpaying, hardworking, and law-abiding people who are integrating into U.S. society.
THE UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS ARE PAYING MORE TAXES THAN YOU THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IMMIGRANTS AND TAXES:
Q: “Is it true that illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes and drain our economy?”
A: As Ben Franklin said, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Like the rest of us, unauthorized immigrants pay taxes on their property and anything they buy. More than half of them have taxes taken out of their paychecks, but because our immigration system is dysfunctional, these taxes are paid under false Social Security numbers. We need a new regimen in which we know who is paying taxes and can ensure that no one is getting a free ride. The only way to do that is to pull unauthorized immigrants out of the shadows and get them on the right side of the law.
Three state-level studies have found that unauthorized immigrants pay more in taxes than they use in benefits. In Iowa, unauthorized immigrants pay an estimated $40 to $62 million in state taxes, while they and their employers contribute an additional $50 million to $77.8 million in federal, Social Security, and Medicare taxes from which they will never benefit. In Oregon, unauthorized immigrants—who are not eligible for any state benefits—pay between $134 million and $187 million in taxes each year. Finally, in Texas, the State Comptroller found that, without unauthorized residents, the gross state product in 2005 would have been $17.7 billion less.
————————
The economics of immigration, Stephen C. Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration and someone who enjoys bipartisan support for his straightforwardness, said that by 2007, the Social Security trust fund had received a net benefit of somewhere between $120 billion and $240 billion from unauthorized immigrants.
That represented an astounding 5.4 percent to 10.7 percent of the trust fund’s total assets of $2.24 trillion that year. The cumulative contribution is surely higher now. Unauthorized immigrants paid a net contribution of $12 billion in 2007 alone, Goss said.
Previous estimates circulating publicly and in Congress had placed the annual contributions at roughly half of Goss’s 2007 figure and listed the cumulative benefit on the order of $50 billion.
The Social Security trust fund faces a solvency crisis that would be even more pressing were it not for these payments.
Adding to the Social Security irony is that the restrictionists are mostly OLDER AND RETIRED WHITES from longtime American families. The very people, in other words, who benefit most from the Social Security payments by unauthorized immigrants.
————————————-
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Would Boost the Economy & Help ALL American Workers: As opposed to the mass deportation, enforcement-only approach, addressing and fixing the immigration system in a wholesale manner will be a boon to the U.S. economy and all U.S. workers. That is why both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win created The Labor Movement’s Joint Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Dr. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda conducted a 2010 report for the Center for American Progress and the Immigration Policy Center that found that “Unlike the current enforcement-only strategy, comprehensive reform would raise the ‘wage floor’ for the entire U.S. economy—to the benefit of both immigrant and native-born workers.” According to the study, granting legal status to undocumented immigrants and creating flexible legal limits on future immigration flows would generate enough consumer-spending to support 750,000-900,000 jobs. The report also found that the mass deportation approach would reduce GDP by 1.46 percent annually, amounting to a loss of $2.6 trillion over 10 years.
———————————————
MYTH: Immigrants take jobs from Americans.
FACT: Immigrants create new jobs, and complement the skills of the
U.S. native workforce.
MYTH: Immigrants drive down the wages of American workers.
FACT: Immigrants increase overall economic productivity and have no
significant effect on overall wages for American workers.
MYTH: Immigrants will cause massive, unnecessary population growth
in the United States.
FACT: As the baby boomer generation begins to retire and the U.S.
fertility rate declines, it will be necessary to replace our aging
workforce with immigrants to maintain economic growth.
MYTH: Undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes.
FACT: Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes
each year, often for services they will never receive.
MYTH: Immigrants come to the United States for welfare benefits.
FACT: The law forbids immigrants from using welfare services.
MYTH: The Government should just enforce the law to solve our
immigration problems.
FACT: Enforcement alone will not solve our immigration problems. The
cost would be prohibitive, it would have a detrimental effect on
the U.S. economy, and it would simply push certain immigrants
further into the underground economy.
MYTH: Immigrants are not assimilating.
FACT: Immigrants are assimilating at much the same rate as past
waves of immigrants.
MYTH: Immigrants are more likely to commit crimes than
U.S. natives.
FACT: Immigrants have a much lower incarceration rate than
U.S. natives.
MYTH: Workers that come to the United States as temporary workers
will stay in the country once their visas expire.
FACT: Historically, migrants from Mexico worked in the United
States for a few months or years, but then returned home.
Border enforcement has made that pattern much more
difficult.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/18/2222215/sc-illegal-immigration-bill-moves.html#ixzz1MoE9GPql
————–
The Undocumented Immigrants pay the exact same amount of taxes like you and me when they buy Things, rent a house, fill up gas, drink a beer or wine, buy appliances, play the states lottery and mega millions . Below are the links to just a few sites that will show you exactly how much tax you or the Undocumented Immigrant pays , so you see they are NOT FREELOADERS, THEY PAY TAXES AND TOLLS Exactly the same as you, Now if you take out 10% from your states /city Budget what will your city/state look like financially ?
Stop your folly thinking , you are wise USE YOUR WISDOM to see the reality. They pay more taxes than you think, Including FEDERAL INCOME TAX using a ITN Number that is given to them by the IRS, Social Security Taxes and State taxes that are withheld form their paychecks automatically.
Taxes, paid by You & the Undocumented are the same in each state check your state : http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/sales.html
GAS Taxes paid by you & the Undocumented are the same. Go to and check out your states tax; http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp
Cigarette Taxes paid by you & the Undocumented are the same, check this out in : http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/cigarett.html
Clothing Sales Taxes, are the same paid by you & the Undocumented Immigrant; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States
City Taxes, are the same paid by you or the Undocumented, since he pays rent and the LANDLORD pays the city : http://www.town-usa.com/statetax/statetaxlist.html
Beer Taxes, are the same paid by you or the Undocumented: http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/beer.html
TAX DATA : http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/245.html
MYTH: Immigrants take jobs from Americans.
FACT: Immigrants create new jobs, and complement the skills of the
U.S. native workforce.
MYTH: Immigrants drive down the wages of American workers.
FACT: Immigrants increase overall economic productivity and have no
significant effect on overall wages for American workers.
MYTH: Immigrants will cause massive, unnecessary population growth
in the United States.
FACT: As the baby boomer generation begins to retire and the U.S.
fertility rate declines, it will be necessary to replace our aging
workforce with immigrants to maintain economic growth.
MYTH: Undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes.
FACT: Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes
each year, often for services they will never receive.
MYTH: Immigrants come to the United States for welfare benefits.
FACT: The law forbids immigrants from using welfare services.
MYTH: The Government should just enforce the law to solve our
immigration problems.
FACT: Enforcement alone will not solve our immigration problems. The
cost would be prohibitive, it would have a detrimental effect on
the U.S. economy, and it would simply push certain immigrants
further into the underground economy.
MYTH: Immigrants are not assimilating.
FACT: Immigrants are assimilating at much the same rate as past
waves of immigrants.
MYTH: Immigrants are more likely to commit crimes than
U.S. natives.
FACT: Immigrants have a much lower incarceration rate than
U.S. natives.
MYTH: Workers that come to the United States as temporary workers
will stay in the country once their visas expire.
FACT: Historically, migrants from Mexico worked in the United
States for a few months or years, but then returned home.
Border enforcement has made that pattern much more
difficult.
Eight million Undocumented immigrants pay Social Security, Medicare and income taxes. Denying public services to people who pay their taxes is an affront to America’s bedrock belief in fairness. But many “pull-up-the-drawbridge” politicians want to do just that when it comes to Undocumented immigrants.
The fact that Undocumented immigrants pay taxes at all will come as news to many Americans. A stunning two thirds of Undocumented immigrants pay Medicare, Social Security and personal income taxes.
Yet, nativists like Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., have popularized the notion that illegal aliens are a colossal drain on the nation’s hospitals, schools and welfare programs — consuming services that they don’t pay for.
In reality, the 1996 welfare reform bill disqualified Undocumented immigrants from nearly all means tested government programs including food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid and Medicare-funded hospitalization.
The only services that illegals can still get are emergency medical care and K-12 education. Nevertheless, Tancredo and his ilk pushed a bill through the House criminalizing all aid to illegal aliens — even private acts of charity by priests, nurses and social workers.
Potentially, any soup kitchen that offers so much as a free lunch to an illegal could face up to five years in prison and seizure of assets. The Senate bill that recently collapsed would have tempered these draconian measures against private aid.
But no one — Democrat or Republican — seems to oppose the idea of withholding public services. Earlier this year, Congress passed a law that requires everyone who gets Medicaid — the government-funded health care program for the poor — to offer proof of U.S. citizenship so we can avoid “theft of these benefits by illegal aliens,” as Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., puts it. But, immigrants aren’t flocking to the United States to mooch off the government.
According to a study by the Urban Institute, the 1996 welfare reform effort dramatically reduced the use of welfare by undocumented immigrant households, exactly as intended. And another vital thing happened in 1996: the Internal Revenue Service began issuing identification numbers to enable illegal immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers to file taxes.
One might have imagined that those fearing deportation or confronting the prospect of paying for their safety net through their own meager wages would take a pass on the IRS’ scheme. Not so. Close to 8 million of the 12 million or so illegal aliens in the country today file personal income taxes using these numbers, contributing billions to federal coffers.
No doubt they hope that this will one day help them acquire legal status — a plaintive expression of their desire to play by the rules and come out of the shadows. What’s more, aliens who are not self-employed have Social Security and Medicare taxes automatically withheld from their paychecks.
Since undocumented workers have only fake numbers, they’ll never be able to collect the benefits these taxes are meant to pay for. Last year, the revenues from these fake numbers — that the Social Security administration stashes in the “earnings suspense file” — added up to 10 percent of the Social Security surplus.
The file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year. Beyond federal taxes, all illegals automatically pay state sales taxes that contribute toward the upkeep of public facilities such as roads that they use, and property taxes through their rent that contribute toward the schooling of their children.
The non-partisan National Research Council found that when the taxes paid by the children of low-skilled immigrant families — most of whom are illegal — are factored in, they contribute on average $80,000 more to federal coffers than they consume. Yes, many illegal migrants impose a strain on border communities on whose doorstep they first arrive, broke and unemployed.
To solve this problem equitably, these communities ought to receive the surplus taxes that federal government collects from immigrants. But the real reason border communities are strained is the lack of a guest worker program.
Such a program would match willing workers with willing employers in advance so that they wouldn’t be stuck for long periods where they disembark while searching for jobs. The cost of undocumented aliens is an issue that immigrant bashers have created to whip up indignation against people they don’t want here in the first place.
With the Senate having just returned from yet another vacation and promising to revisit the stalled immigration bill, politicians ought to set the record straight: Illegals are not milking the government. If anything, it is the other way around.
What the hell happened??? Lets BLAME THE FOOD PICKING, , DISHWASHING, LAWN MOWING UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH