Migration Watch UK: News

EU Migrant Access to the British Welfare State

 

1. The government should strongly resist efforts by the EU to further weaken British control over access tour welfare system.

The Habitual Residence Test

2. It was announced today that the UK is to be taken to the European Court of Justice over its rules regarding access to welfare for EU immigrants (See here).

3. The UK welfare system is already uniquely open to EU migrants as most benefits in the UK are based on residence and ‘need’. Most other member states have a largely contributions based system.

4. The criteria for access to benefits are met automatically in the case of workers or self-employed persons. Other applicants such as job-seekers may have to pass the Habitual Residence Test (See here). This test has two elements:

• Is the UK now your place of residence based on a demonstration of intention to stay (also, confusingly, known as habitual residence)

• Are you exercising a specific treaty right as an EU citizen, such as worker, job-seeker or student (technically known as the “right to reside”).

The European Commission objects to the right to reside part of this test.

5. The removal of this part of the test would make it even easier to turn up in the UK and gain full access to the welfare state, without even the need demonstrate that you are looking for work.

Recommendations

6. We recommend that the government moves in the opposite direction and makes it much harder for EU nationals to access the welfare state. A significant part of the economic incentive to migrate from Eastern Europe to the UK is the availability of tax credits and other in-work benefits for low paid workers (See here). This has created a situation in which the UK taxpayer is subsidising low paid immigration from the EU.

7. It must, therefore, be a key objective of the Government’s renegotiation of our arrangements with the European Union that no worker should receive benefits (in-work or out of work) until he or she has worked for five years in this country. That would bring EU citizens more closely into line with migrants from the rest of the world. It would also both reduce the current massive financial advantage to move to the UK and make the system much fairer to British tax payers who have contributed all their working lives. Such arrangements would not interfere with the free movement of workers which is, of course, fundamental to the EU but the free and immediate access to all benefits is quite another matter.

 

Family Permits for EU Citizens in Britain

A paper issued today by Migration Watch UK reveals that 100,000 dependants of EU nationals resident in Britain entered the UK in the last five years with no conditions attached but with full and immediate access to benefits.

The government’s reform of the Immigration Rules require British citizens to be earning £18,600 before they can bring in a spouse from outside the EU so as to avoid any cost to the taxpayer.   However, under EU law, they are obliged to provide favourable treatment to EU citizens including those who may never have been resident here prior to moving with their non-EU family.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said “This is a loophole that must be closed and soon.   It is absurd that EU citizens should be in a more favourable position than our own citizens.  Furthermore, 20,000 per year is a very large number to admit unconditionally, especially compared to the government’s target of tens of thousands for annual net migration.

Notes to Editors:

1 More precisely, this applies to EEA nationals.

2 Example: French or Polish citizens living in the UK can marry someone from anywhere in the world and can bring him or her to the UK even if they do not have a job and cannot support their spouse whereas a British citizen must now be earning £18,600 a year.

3 Examples of Abuse – An Indian national from Goa can obtain Portuguese citizenship if their parents were Portuguese citizens prior to 1961. They can then move straight to the UK with their family using an EEA family permit.  On arrival they can avail themselves, immediately, of all the benefits available to UK citizens. There is anecdotal evidence that this has been happening quite extensively. Many settle in Swindon, where around 9,000 Goans now live.

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The British in Europe

There are 407,000 British workers in other countries of the European Union, compared to over 1.4 million workers from another EU country in the UK.

To see the full Briefing Paper No 4.21 click here.

BBC Newsnight Poll - Romanian and Bulgarian migration

This is a stunning survey, which the BBC has rather desperately tried to play down. The percentages look small but when multiplied by the size of the work force they produce large numbers. One percent of Romanians of working age (total 15.4 million) actively considering work in the UK amounts to 150,000 and four percent of working age Bulgarians (total 4.9 million) is another 200,000. Even if one takes only those making concrete plans, the number of Romanians is 61,000 and the number of Bulgarians 58,000 or nearly 120,000 in total.  Not all will come of course and polls of intentions are notoriously difficult but others may well come once their friends are installed. 

Commenting on the poll, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said:

“These figures suggest that the Migration Watch central estimate of 50,000 a year is distinctly cautious. Numbers suggested on the scale by this survey would make it impossible for the Government to sustain their target of tens of thousands, assuming they reach it by the end of the parliament.”

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Sir Andrew Green Comments on NIESR report on Romanian and Bulgarian Migration

This morning the National Institute of Economic and Social Research published a paper which failed to estimate the number of Romanian and Bulgarian migrants who will come to the UK when transitional controls end on 1 January 2014. 

Commenting on the report Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said:

“This report is a bucket of whitewash. In 60 pages it produces no estimate whatever of the likely future scale of Romanian and Bulgarian migration to the UK. It doesn't even address the only estimate published so far – by Migration Watch UK which has a strong record in these matters. It brushes aside any indication of an increase in migration from these countries whose workers are amongst the most mobile in the EU. Furthermore it avoids tackling the key question of how many Romanian and Bulgarian migrants now in Spain and Italy might transfer to Britain. “ 

The Prime Minister's Speech - The Public's View

A recent YouGov survey which received remarkably little media attention has shown striking public support for the Prime Minister's proposals outlined in his speech last week. (See here for the PM's speech)

The key findings in a survey conducted on 25-26 March 2013 were:

70% of respondents supported the policy of only allowing European migrants to claim jobseekers allowance for more than six months if they have a "reasonable prospect" of finding work, including 72% of Liberal Democrat voters.

78% supported a policy which would see the government doing more to charge foreign governments for the cost of treating overseas patients, including 76% of Liberal Democrat voters. 

81% of respondents would support a policy which disallowed migrants from joining the council house waiting list until they have lived in Britain for two years, including 73% of Liberal Democrat voters.

86% of respondents support a policy of increased fines for companies that employ illegal immigrants, including 83% of Liberal Democrat voters.

The survey can be found here. 

The contribution of A8 migrants to the UK public finances – some further comment

In an article for the Guardian Online on 6 March, Jonathan Portes made three claims which we believe are open to question [1]:

1. A8 migrants are “far less likely to live in social housing”

The study [2] upon which this claim is based only covered the first four years of A8 migration to the UK and compared this inflow of mainly young and mainly single new arrivals with the entire British population.  Obviously A8 migrants would be less likely to qualify for social housing.

2. A8 migrants are “far less likely to claim benefits and tax credits”

This is based on a study [3] by the Department for Work and Pensions but it omits benefits such as housing benefit and Council tax benefit paid by local authorities.  In any case the young and single are less likely to claim.

3. A8 migrants “paid in via taxes about 30% more than they cost our public services”

The paper on which this claim relies is only a snapshot of the situation in 2009 and it only looks backwards, taking no account of future costs of health, education and pensions. It explicitly states that "any predictions of future contributions and receipts must rely on a set of very strong (sic) assumptions, and we do not wish to engage in such speculation"[4]

Comment.  The thrust of the article is that A8 migrants are young, healthy and have a high employment rate so are less likely to be a charge on the benefit system.   That is almost self evident if the focus is confined to the short term but the longer term implications are also important, both socially and economically.

A major and more recent study carried out in 2011 by the NIESR, a think tank now led by Jonathan Portes, found that the long term impact on GDP of A8 migration to the UK was expected to be ‘negligible’. [5]

[1]Jonathan Portes, A crisis over the UK’s benefits bill for EU migrants? What crisis?, Guardian Online, 6 March 2013. See here

[2] CReAM, ‘Assessing the Fiscal Costs and Benefits of A8 Migration to the UK’, CReAM Discussion Paper No 18/09, July 2009, p. 19. See here

[3] DWP, Nationality at point of national insurance number registration of DWP benefit claimants: February 2011 working age benefits, January 2012. See here

[4]CReAM, ‘Assessing the Fiscal Costs and Benefits of A8 Migration to the UK’, CReAM Discussion Paper No 18/09, July 2009, p. 19. 

[5] NIESR, ‘Labour Mobility within the EU – The Impact of Enlargement and the functioning of the transitional arrangements’, NIESR Discussion Paper No 379, April 2011, p. 2. See here   

[6] House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs, 1^st Report of Session 2007-08, The Economic Impact of Immigration, Volume I: Report, April 2008 page 41. See here

The Prime Minister's Immigration Speech

Commenting on David Cameron's speech on immigration this afternoon, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: 

"It is surely only fair that everybody should contribute to the welfare system before they can draw benefits. The devil is often in the detail but this speech sets out a broad  agenda for tightening access to the welfare state and it is the right one."

Briefing Note on Social Housing and Immigration

Demand exceeds supply

1  The Prime Minister’s speech proposed that immigrants should wait 2-5 years before joining the waiting list which, in England, has grown dramatically in recent years from around a million in 2001 to two million today[1].  

Immigration Status and Eligibility

2  Currently EEA nationals who are habitually resident in the UK have to be treated exactly the same as British citizens in their application for social housing[2]. This in effect means that EEA nationals can join the social housing register from day one.

3  Nationals from outside the EU can join the social housing register if they have Indefinite Leave to Remain or have been granted refugee status.

4  Recent reforms in the localism act allow local authorities to house homeless people in the private rented sector and to give some priority to people with a local connection.  However, most local authorities with large waiting lists have ignored the option of favouring those with a local connection.

The impact of recent immigration

5  Nationally around 1 in 10 new lets goes to foreign nationals but there is huge local variation. For example it appears that nearly half of the lets in the London boroughs of Ealing and Haringey go to foreign nationals[3].  In Peterborough and Boston in the Fens over a quarter of new lets go to foreign nationals[4]. 

6  It is difficult to get a complete picture at the local level because the survey question on nationality is optional. This has allowed some local authorities to avoid answering it. In London less than half the local authority lets had nationality data against them[5]. 

Recommendations

7  We recommend that the nationality question be made compulsory and that there be a public inquiry into the allocation of social housing in recent years, particularly in London.                                                                   

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[1] Local Authority Housing Statistics https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6910/2039199.pdf

[2] http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefingPaper/document/289

[3] Paragraph 22 http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefingPaper/document/286

[4] Continuous Recording of Lettings and Sales https://core.communities.gov.uk/ Advanced Analysis of General Needs new lets by local authority where previous tenure not social housing.

[5] http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefingPaper/document/286

 

Immigration: Labour Party Broadcast

Commenting on the Labour Party Broadcast, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said:

"Ed Miliband's proposals could be useful in curbing unscrupulous employers but they deal mainly with EU migration. In fact, only a quarter of the nearly 3 million immigrants in Labour's last ten years came from the EU. He is wrong to imply that immigration on this scale is good for Britain. It is high time Labour indicated whether they agree that a limit on immigration is now essential.

Note to Editors:ONS Long-Term International Migration data, 2001-2010 non-British net migration was 2.79 million of which non-EU net migration accounted for 2.15 million and EU net migration accounted for 640,000

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