Reform UK migration plan would make us all worse off

Cleaning workers on strike in 2017. Research shows that migrants are a net benefit to the economy (Pic: Guy Smallman)

New research has blown a hole through the right wing lies that migrants are a drain on resources. In fact, you would be worse off without immigration.  

Reform UK wants to cut net immigration to zero—with the number of people leaving equal to the number arriving. Its plan would turn people’s lives upside down through mass deportations. It would also shrink the economy.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) found that net zero migration would leave the economy 3.6 percent smaller by 2040. It would slow down growth in employment and lead to a smaller proportion of working-age people in the population.

The result would be lower tax revenues as there would be fewer people paying taxes.

It would force the government to increase taxes or cut spending to make up lost revenue.

But if net migration stayed positive, a larger working-age population would increase government tax revenues and grow the economy.

Stephen Millard, NIESR’s deputy director for macroeconomics, said, “Our analysis clearly shows that net zero migration would put pressure on the public finances and worsen the public debt outlook.”

The research cuts against the lies that migrants are a “burden” on the economy. Reform UK consistently pushes this racist myth as part of its scapegoating of migrants and refugees and its claim that immigration is behind “British national decline”.

Anti-racists have to take on these myths in every workplace and community.