Immigration and society

On June 65438+1October 65438+June 2007, the British Home Office, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Employment and Pensions jointly released the report "The Economic and Financial Impact of Immigration", which triggered an unprecedented debate on immigration between the British government and the public.

There are two distinct voices on immigration policy.

Among the EU member states, Britain has the loosest immigration policy. Since the New Labour government came to power from 65438 to 0997, the British economy has been growing continuously, creating a large number of employment opportunities. The British government has always adopted an "open door" attitude towards immigrants. The loose immigration policy not only attracts immigrants from traditional British colonial countries and Asian countries, but also directly promotes the free flow of labor among EU member States. Especially after the EU's eastward expansion in 2004, new immigrants from Romania, Poland and other new countries entered the British labor market one after another, forming a new wave of immigration.

In this unprecedented immigration debate, the views of all walks of life in Britain have changed from different opinions at first to two completely different voices. One school fully affirmed the contribution of immigrants to the British economy; The other school emphasizes the negative impact of immigration on society. The above-mentioned report jointly issued by the British Home Office is more inclined to the former view. The report pointed out that this new wave of immigrants has many characteristics such as large scale, long duration and positive economic impact.

First, according to preliminary estimates, from 1997 to now, the total number of new immigrants in Britain has exceeded 165438+ 10,000, accounting for about 7% and 8% of the total population in Britain respectively. If we take 2004 as the line, the number of new immigrants was145,000 before, and then rose to around190,000. It is predicted that the average number of new immigrants in Britain will reach 500,000 after 2007.

Second, the report positively evaluates the positive contribution of new immigrants to the British economy. Compared with British workers, new immigrants have surpassed local workers in skills, honesty and diligence, and made great contributions to British economic development. In 2004 and 2005, 17% of Britain's total economic growth was created by immigrants. In addition, the survey shows that in 2000, British immigrants paid 31200 million pounds in taxes and spent 28.8 billion pounds on public services and subsidies, making a net contribution to the British economy; In addition, this contribution of immigrants has increased year by year.

Third, new immigrants are engaged in industries with relatively low social status and long-term discrimination by "locals", thus partially alleviating the long-standing imbalance between supply and demand of labor in these industries. In 2006, the survey on the distribution of immigrant industry showed that the employment ratio of immigrants from newly joined countries in Eastern Europe to British natives was 265,438+0% to 65,438+03%, 65,438+04% to 9%, 24% to 65,438+09% and 654,33 respectively. The sample survey of employers also shows that in some industries, immigrants are more honest, more diligent, have lower dismissal costs and lower salary requirements than British natives, so employers are more willing to hire immigrants.