Immigration is reducing jobs for natives — report

London: Migrants have forced tens of thousands of Britons out of the workplace, a landmark report warned yesterday.

An independent panel of advisers found that, between 2005 and 2010, 160,000 people had been ‘displaced', or left jobless, by a huge influx of foreign workers.

For every four migrant workers who come to the country from outside the EU, one British job is lost, the experts said.

The Migration Advisory Committee also criticised the way ministers have used the potential impact on GDP — the total size of the economy — to decide whether large-scale immigration was desirable.

Professor David Metcalf, chairman of the MAC, said it had led ‘inexorably' to ‘pro-immigration' policies because more migrants will logically expand the economy. He called on ministers instead to consider the impact on schools, hospitals, congestion, crime rates and house prices.

Referring to the current system, Professor Metcalf said: "The main gainer is the migrant. It's not the British resident. The focus should be on the British resident."

Strict border controls

Tory ministers were urged to seize on the findings of the report to impose far stricter border controls. To date, the Liberal Democrats have been undermining attempts to crack down on economic migration. But, in the first study of its kind, the MAC — set up by the last Labour government, and independent of Whitehall — said large-scale immigration was having a significant impact on the job prospects of the ‘native' population.

The report, which follows years of controversy over whether immigration leads to fewer jobs for British workers, showed that every increase of 100 foreign-born working-age migrants in the UK was linked to a reduction of 23 Britons in employment between 1995 and 2010.

Between 2005 and 2010 alone, the number of working-age migrants in employment rose by 700,000 and displaced 160,000 British-born workers, it said. Average wages remain the same, the MAC said, but the highest wages get higher and the lower wages get lower.