Immigration Soars; Living Standards Fall, By Richard Miller (Europe)
The pro-immigration lobbies across the West argue that mass immigration has enormous economic benefits, at least to their class. However, for society as a whole, the case of the UK is a refuting instance. At present immigration is soaring; net migration added 1.5 million to the population across 2022 and 2023. But real GDP per head, a measure of average living standards, is growing at the slowest rate in decades, increasing by only 0.3 percent a year. As the population has grown faster than the economy, GDP per head of population has slowed.
Thus, even in the economic rationalist's own terms, mass immigration is not a winner via economic standards of raising GDP levels. The economy is on slow boil, but the immigration machine is in full-pumping mode, so an economic downturn is inevitable. That follows as a matter of statistics, not even looking at real economic effects, such as the social harms from an accommodation crisis, seen in both the immigration-mad UK and Australia.
"Households' living standards are improving at the slowest rate in more than 50 years, as soaring immigration fuels population growth and the economy stalls.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that real GDP per head, which is often described as a measure of average living standards, is growing at the slowest rate in decades.
It has increased by only 0.3pc a year on average so far in the 2020s. This is much lower than in any previous decade since at least the 1970s.
GDP per head has slowed as the population has grown faster than the economy. Net migration added 1.5m to the population across 2022 and 2023. The economy grew by 4.3pc in 2022 as the UK bounced back from the pandemic but growth slowed to just 0.3pc last year.
The economy has not kept pace as a result of a worklessness crisis and persistent problems with productivity. The number of people out of work from sickness has surged to a near-record high of 2.8m, fuelling fears of a spiralling benefit bill.
The ONS said: "Long-term sickness, ageing of the resident population and net migration for reasons other than work each may have been factors that contributed to a higher population outside of the labour force."
Even as living standards have, on average, increased in the 2020s, GDP per head remained below pre-pandemic levels at the end of June following an in-year slump.
GDP per head suffered a dramatic drop during Covid before recovering only weakly, leaving it vulnerable to falling below pre-pandemic levels.
The ONS's findings suggest economic growth is being fuelled by more people arriving, not because of improvements in productivity. It means there is little more to go around on a per-household basis than before the pandemic.
The findings come as immigration once again becomes a top concern for voters, with 45pc of Britons saying it is among the most important issues facing the country.
Sentiment is now on a par with just after the EU referendum in 2016 and means immigration is the second-most cited concern after the economy.
Worries about immigration had been in decline since Brexit and only started rising consistently again from autumn 2022.
The war in Ukraine and Hong Kongers fleeing tightening security laws resulted in around 210,000 people arriving on humanitarian visas in the past two years.
The surge in immigration has come as women in Britain have fewer children than at any point since the 1970s. Migration has become the main source of population growth as a result.
Migrants appear to have higher employment rates than the population as a whole, the ONS said.
It added: "Continued improvement in employment prospects for non-EU born residents in the UK may further contribute to increasing real GDP per head."
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