Abstract
The recent survey in the UK and Europe reveals that majority is of the opinion that unemployed immigrant should be sent out from the country. Does immigrant is really adding any value and utility to the host country. Both skilled and unskilled immigrants are essential for UK’s growth in the essential sectors like software, medical and construction industry. This research exposes both sides of the immigrant issue and finally concludes that immigrant is essential in some essential sectors for the overall development of UK’s economy.
The context
As of mid- 2007, the resident population of UK is estimated about 6,975,000. The UK’s unemployment rate was at 6.5% for the quarter to January 2009 which is higher by 0.5% over the previous quarter and higher by 1.3 % over the year. The figure of unemployed individual increased by 165,500 over the quarter and augmented by 421,000 over the annum finally to reach 2.02 million. (Ethnicity 2009).
The unemployment claimant benefit count was estimated at £1.40 billion as of February 2009 and it is higher by 138,400 over the quarter and reported an increase of 596,000. This is highest increase on monthly basis in the claimant count since 1971. (Ethnicity 2009).
Majority of immigrant group are unemployed in UK than Whites. As far as UK is concerned, unemployment rates will be generally higher among the main ethnic minority groups. Two main reasons have been cited as the reason for the high rate of unemployment is the UK employers’ hiring decisions which discriminate on the foots of ethnicity and lack of good English fluency for success in the highly competitive labour market in UK. Several previous empirical surveys disclosed that those immigrants who reached UK at a young age had much better spoken and written skills in English than older immigrants. (Dustman & Glitz 2005).
Literature Review
White population in UK is found to be economically active rather than their colleagues in minority ethnic group. As of 2001-02, Bangladeshi had the highest unemployment rate of 20% as compared to the White. Indians unemployment rate hovered around 7 %. In all other minority ethnic group, the rate of unemployment was as high as three times as compared to White. Chinese and Pakistani group are self-employed than compared to other groups. In 2001-02, about 19% of Chinese and 22% of Pakistani were self-employed. Pakistanis are self employed in communication and transport industries whereas Chinese are self employed in hotel, distribution and restaurant sector. (Ethnicity 2009).
Social Security benefit expenditure in 2002-03 in UK was £ 110 billion. This was distributed in the following ratios to various welfare schemes in UK. Benefits to elders are around 52%. Benefits to sick and disabled are around 26%. Benefits to Family welfare schemes are around 16%. Benefits to unemployed on the whole are about 4% and benefits to widows and others comprise of 2 %. (Ethnicity 2009).
Thus, for the unemployed, UK is spending about 4% of £ 110 billion i.e. £ 4.4 billion.
In U.K, work permit holders from overseas crossed from 25,000 in 1995 to 60,000 in 2000. In 2004, it raised alarmingly to 145,000 due to existence of shortage of skilled and technical savvy individuals. However, officials claimed that this figure is increased in many folds by the spouses and other relatives many immigrants might have brought in. (Ethnicity 2009).
It is estimated that UK will take about 5.9 million immigrants in the next 45 years. It is estimated that influx of 5.85 million migrants into the UK would augment the UK population in 2050 by 9.8 million or an increase of 1.67 times. (Parsons & Smeeding 2006, p47).
According to UK government statistic, there are about 570,000 illegal immigrants in UK who entered into UK with the forged documents and those who have overstayed in UK after the lapse of their visa period. According to 2001 census, about 772.000 asylum seekers are in UK whose application is under the process or who have initiated the appeal process. According to UK home office about 0.7% of UK population or about 430,000 are staying in UK as illegal immigrants. Finally, UK government has accepted that its illegal immigrant population has crossed about half a million. Apart from benefit for unemployment, UK government has funded about 4000 unsuccessful asylum seekers to return to their home country in the year 2004-05. (Daily Post, 2005, p.6).
Critics vehemently argue that illegal immigrants have stolen the British jobs considerably , chance of inflicting non-English speaking menace to UK culture , ruining the robust UK economy and causing overall threat to national security.Some critics have opined that by allowing illegal immigrants in UK soil , poverty is being imported by millions on every year basis. Some are of the view that liberal immigration policy will result in unemployment problems and an escalation in crime rates. According to Briggs, immigration policy should be evaluated mainly on about labour market considerations. Briggs was of the view that colossal inflow of illegal immigrants is making serious interferences in the normal labour market adjustment processes. (Briggs, 2001).
To me, immigrant workforce is bringing lot of economic benefits to UK. For instance, if migrant inflows are heavy, then it is probable that wages will be decreased and there will some marginal increase in unemployment rates and this may exists for a short while. This will have impact on the distribution of income in UK. The new migrants might have reaped some benefits due to immigrant to UK. Their standard of living might be increased. At this juncture, those domestic employees who face competition from migrants might have lost their employment at least for a short while. At the same time, corporate and business find it more competitive due to lower labor costs. This will offer UK business a competitive benefit over foreign corporate, in nations that are not receiving foreign migrants. Profits of UK business will rise and UK corporate will be able to diversify and expand, thus augmenting the demand for labor and thereby permitting the unemployed to find jobs. It is to be observed that if immigrant flows are in parameter with UK’s economic growth, then development can prolong without being overseen by labour deficit and rising inflation. (Hurd, 2002).
It is to be recalled that there is heavy shortage for nurses, doctors, teachers, information technology experts, top financial executives etc.
Mismatches between supply and labor demand can also present in the private sector due to elements restricting the mobility of labor. For instance, the fast track growth of the microelectronic industry paved the way to the shortage of employees with high level skills in information technology field.
To overcome these labor shortages, employers will be allowed to be recruited in an obvious manner to trounce specific labour shortages. To overcome the seasonal demand like in hotel and tourist industry, there is a special visas issued on temporary basis to work in the UK. To triumph over the endemic paucity of nurses and doctors, the health services in UK has relied on overseas recruitment for many years.
In Western countries, support for unemployed has been fairly open-handed. Some other obvious reasons for delay in searching for jobs are time consumption in comprehending the procedure for recruitment, language difficulties and lack of knowledge in finding the effective means of collecting information on job vacancies.
Some governments have tried to minimize excess immigration by implementing lower or special levels of support for migrants. (Hurd, 2002).
In UK, unemployed immigrants receive fringe benefits like food and clothing vouchers instead of cash payments mainly to dishearten excess migration. (Ethnicity 2009).
Further , section 55 of the Nationality , Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 ensures that UK government relief measures is not extended to illegal immigrants and is being used by the asylum either who lost their job or after being apprehended. (Wolton, 2006, p.6).
Hypothesis
Main hypothesis of this research essay is should jobless immigrants leave Britain? However, there are shortages of labour in certain sectors like doctors, nurses, software engineers, construction industry workers etc in UK.
This research essay discuss the whether unemployed immigrants in UK should be shown exit door or not by analysing pros and cons of this everlasting issue.
Rationale
Despite of the fact that immigration can create a numerous issues, it is also having beneficial effects on the wider community. This is known as positive externalities. Immigrants with different educational qualifications, work experience may bring with them new knowledge with them to the host country. This new knowledge imparted by the immigrants may help to increase the overall productivity levels of a nation which in turn augment the demand for labour and offers more opportunities of employment both for domestic labour and immigrants like.
UK has witnessed many Asian migrant entrepreneurs have actually resurrected many shops and established new restaurants and outlets. We have already seen Chinese and Pakistani group are self-employed than compared to other groups. In 2001-02, about 19% of Chinese and 22% of Pakistani were self-employed. Pakistanis are self employed in communication and transport industries whereas Chinese are self employed in hotel, distribution and restaurant sector.
Service and manufacturing enterprises in UK are run and owned by Asian migrants where they turned to be major employers of both capital and labour. Thus, Asian migrants employ self-employment as a tool to avoid low-pay and other guises of discrimination in the UK’s labour market.
We have already seen that social Security benefit expenditure in 2002-03 in UK was £ 110 billion. Further, UK government had spent a just 4% on unemployment benefits which means that UK government has spent about £4.4 billion toward unemployment benefit scheme to unemployed in whole and this being a meager amount if we compare the expenditure on other social benefits.
Further, to me, immigrants are offering immeasurable service to UK community in general. In view of the foregoing, the argument “Should jobless immigrants leave Britain?” is unfair. Yes, immigrants have to stay in UK if UK wants to revive its economy on sustainable basis for ever.
References
Aaronovitch David. (2009). Fabricated fear and loathing in Lincolnshire. Web.
Briggs Vermon M. (2001). American Unionism and U.S Immigration Policy. Center for Immigration studies backgrounder, (8).
Coleman, D., & Rowthorn, R. (2004). The Economic Effects of Immigration into the United Kingdom. Population & Development Review, 30(4), 579-624.
Dustman, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht (2005). Immigration, Jobs and Wages: Theory, Evidence and Opinion. London: Center for Economic Policy Research.
Düvell, F., & Jordan, B. (2003). Immigration control and the management of economic migration in the United Kingdom: organizational culture, implementation, enforcement and identity processes in public services. Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies, 29(2), 299.
Hatton, T. (2005). Explaining trends in UK immigration. Journal of Population Economics, 18(4), 719-740.
Hurd, Steve. Immigration and the UK labour market. Teaching Business & Economics (2002). Web.
IMMIGRANTS’ [Pounds Sterling] 200 CHARGE TO STAY IN UK; Pre-Election Blitz on Families Joining Migrant Workers. (2005, February 4). The Evening Standard (London, England), p. 1. Web.
Parsons, Craig and Smeeding, Timothy M. (2006). Immigration and the Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Poles Capitalize on Opportunities; More Than 427, 000 Immigrants from Eastern Europe Have Come to Look for Work in the UK. Jessica Shaughnessy Finds a Thriving Polish Community in Liverpool. (2006). Daily Post (Liverpool, England), p. 4. Web.
Stratton, A. (2008). Immigration to the UK: Facts and figures. Web.
Wolton, S. (2006). Immigration Policy and the “Crisis of British Values”. Citizenship Studies, 10(4), 453-467. Web.
www.statistics.gov.uk. (2009) Ethnicity. Web.
0.5m Illegal Immigrants in UK; Government Figure Excludes over 700, 000 Asylum Seekers. (2005). Daily Post (Liverpool, England), p. 6. Web.