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Strasbourg Round-Up

Few subjects provoke greater controversy than migration, especially when certain political groups set out to exploit the issue for their own ends. The formula they use is well tried and tested. Take a half-truth or total untruth present it as fact and then deliberately blow it up out of all proportion to alarm people and play on their worst fears and prejudices. This edition of Brussels Briefing will attempt to bring a more balanced perspective to the debate by separating fact from fiction and dispelling some of the many myths surrounding this important subject.

Those determined to make political capital out of this issue deliberately confuse asylum and immigration and treat them as one and the same. They are not. Asylum refers to people seeking refuge from persecution. The term immigration, on the other hand, applies to those crossing borders voluntarily to take up jobs or go into education. The numbers seeking asylum in Britain peaked some years ago. According to UNHCR, asylum applications have “plummeted” by 61% in the last 2 years and are now almost back to mid-1990s levels. The Home Office says that, last year, 33,921 people claimed asylum in Britain, down from 49,405 in 2003.

Net migration to this country is running at, around 150,000 each year. Between May and September 2004, 91,000 – 0.3% of the UK workforce – came to work here from the 8 Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU last year. Significantly, 45% of these were in the UK prior to accession and, according to the Office of National Statistics, many stay for 3 months or less.

Migrant workers from the new accession countries are estimated to generate £120m of Britain’s GDP and pay £20m in tax and national insurance. In 1999, according to Home Office and CBI figures, migrants as a whole contributed £2.5b more in taxes than they received in benefits from this country. In reality, the very short term, up-front costs to the taxpayer of migration generate major long term benefits. In the NHS, 47% of nurses and 23% of doctors were born outside the UK. Looking at the labour market more generally, migrants can help fill some of the many thousands of job vacancies, at a time when unemployment is at its lowest for a generation. In addition, there is no evidence that immigrants drive down wages.

Those who seek to exploit the asylum and immigration issue often associate it with crime. Yet, there is absolutely no evidence of higher rates of criminality amongst asylum seekers. Indeed, all the research shows that the vast majority of asylum seekers are not connected with people-trafficking gangs. On the contrary, asylum seekers are often the victims of these criminal gangs and are increasingly vulnerable to attacks, once they are dispersed around the country.

Of the Central and Eastern European migrants from the new EU member states registered in the UK between May and September 2004, 95% had no dependents. Only 2,800 tried to claim child benefit - out of 7 million people across the UK who receive it – and, of these, only 37% were approved. Less than 0.3% of those receiving homelessness benefits are immigrants from accession countries. Moreover, this group has made only 500 applications for unemployment benefit, of which 97% were refused immediately.

There is no question of asylum seekers being able to choose where to live. Accommodation provided is nearly always in “hard to let” properties, frequently in the most deprived neighbourhoods. The National Asylum Support Service does not give asylum seekers or landlords any money for furniture or luxury items. Generous cash handouts are also a myth.

Britain ranked 10^th in the EU league table for asylum claims per head of population in 2003 and 37^th worldwide. The world’s poorest countries usually take the most refugees. Indeed, large waves of migration are often from one developing country to another. Research shows that, on average, people here think that 23% of the world’s refugee and asylum seekers come to the UK. In fact the figure is estimated to be less than 0.5% in 2004. Moreover, 75% of asylum claims are refused and the number of failed asylum seekers being removed is rising sharply.

When it comes to asylum and immigration, it is all too easy to think negative. Yet 17 Nobel laureates, 71 fellows of the Royal Society and 50 fellows of the British Society are refugees. On the culinary front, good old-fashioned fish and chips were brought to Britain by Portuguese Jews in the 17^th Century, to say nothing of what is reported to be the country’s latest favourite dish, chicken tikka massala. The Mini and Morris Minor motor cars were invented by a refugee from the Greco-Turkish war. Meanwhile other eminent migrants like Bill Morris, Lord Desai, Trevor MacDonald, Yehudi Menuhin, Lord Yacoub, Lord Paul, John Barnes and many more besides have all made major contributions to life in Britain.

Britain and Europe need secure borders. We must crack down hard on asylum system abuse and root out the people-trafficking gangs that trade in human misery. But equally, we must always try to keep a sense of perspective. Moreover, we should never lose sight of the fact that we have far more to gain from properly managed migration than we have to lose.