Is Ireland unique - hype claims more immigrants are vital

Sceala Clann T.D. Location: Wicklow

Apr 03, 2008
Now that Bertie Ahern ....with great dignity and honour has given notice of his resignation ...allowing the country to move on. Maybe sometime soon .....the tenants of Dail Eireann can start addressing concerns that actually have some impact on the general population.

Unless Ireland is unique ....it appears we have some serious questions regarding the hype claims ..that ....more and more immigrants are vital to our wealth and well being.

Headlines from a UK parliamentary report

Some groups, including the low-paid, young people seeking jobs and some ethnic minorities, may have suffered because of competition for work from immigrants willing to accept low wages and poor working conditions.
Immigration negative impact to UK
Record levels of immigration have had "little or no impact" on the economic well-being of Britons, an influential House of Lords committee has said.
It says competition from immigrants has had a negative impact on the low paid and training for young UK workers, and has contributed to high house prices.

They rejected claims by ministers that a high level of immigration was needed to prevent labour shortages as "fundamentally flawed".

The Lords Economic Affairs Committee, whose members include two ex-chancellors and other Cabinet members, took eight months to consider government immigration policies.
Inquiry chairman Lord Wakeham said: "Looking to the future, if you have got that increase in numbers and you haven't got any economic benefit from it, you have got to ask yourself, is that a wise thing to do?

"That is why we want the government to look at it."
House price rises
Committee chairman Lord Vallance of Tummel, a former CBI president, said the government's analysis of the economic impact from immigration was "very shaky".
They show unequivocally that the benefits of the current immigration policy to ordinary UK citizens are largely non-existent
David Davis,
Shadow home secretary

The report claims that if net immigration of 190,000 people per year continued over the next 20 years, it would contribute to a 10% increase in house prices.

Rich get richer ...poor get poorer
It adds: "The available evidence suggests that immigration has had a small negative impact on the lowest-paid workers in the UK and a small positive impact on the earnings of higher-paid workers."
And there was a "clear danger" immigration had hit training and apprenticeships offered to British workers.

Sir Andrew Green, of pressure group Migrationwatch, said the report had "torn to shreds the government's economic case for the massive levels of immigration which they have actively encouraged".
And shadow home secretary David Davis said the peers had shown "unequivocally that the benefits of the current immigration policy to ordinary UK citizens are largely non-existent".

Ex chancellor Nigel Lawson said: "Population increases make countries bigger, but they don't make countries more prosperous.
"The increased size of the economy is neither here nor there if it doesn't bring increased prosperity. And the reason it doesn't is because there are more mouths to feed, more people there."

Immigration is not a benefit to the economy and should be cut, say peers
Richard Ford, Home Correspondent

Lord Wakeham, the former Conservative Cabinet minister who chaired the Lords inquiry, said: “The argument put forward by the Government that large-scale net immigration brings significant economic benefits for the UK is unconvincing. We have found no evidence to support their position.”

The Government has said that immigrants are boosting the overall economy by £6 billion a year, but the committee said that this was a misleading measure and a better one would be the impact on income per head of the resident population. “On this measure, immigration has had a largely neutral effect on economic wellbeing, with the income of some groups of low-paid workers actually falling,” it said.

It added that the available evidence suggested immigration had had a small negative impact on the lowest-paid workers and a small positive impact on the earnings of hgher-paid workers. “Resident workers whose wages have been adversely affected by immigrations are likely to include a significant proportion of previous immigrants and workers from ethnic minority groups,” the report added.

Lord Layard, an economist and Labour member of the committee, gave warning that Britain would face significant pressure from immigration for years. “We will have a permanent pressure of people to move in our direction. Britain has an extra resource, the English language, for attracting people here. There is no doubt whatever that the pressure will remain for half a century or more,” he said.

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Is Ireland unique - hype claims more immigrants are vital