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An increase in immigration leads to economic growth in Europe -- not to job losses, as popularly feared -- according to a report published 13 May. The study into the effect of immigration on wages and employment in Europe concludes that new workers are absorbed and jobs are created.
Many people think that a country that receives immigrants has a fixed number of jobs, and those immigrants will lead to more competition for those jobs, said one of the report's authors, Christian Dustmann. The report finds, however, that an economy in a competitive international market can expand production, absorbing new workers by creating new jobs.
It also found that knowledge about immigration is low. This can lead to poor immigration policies, since politicians tend to be more responsive to popularly held beliefs rather than evidence.
Immigration to most European countries is similar to immigration to the US, which has a foreign-born population of 12.3 per cent. The authors argue that much of the large-scale migration into Europe and between European countries has been driven by labour shortages.
The report finds that the UK has a very ethnically diverse foreign population while that of Austria is mostly from Europe. Greece and Ireland, which were emigration countries for most of the late 20th century, have very high percentages of foreigners - in the case of Greece, mainly because of the influx of people from Albania and other Balkan countries.
The study found the fear that immigration could reduce jobs for residents was largely unfounded. Although immigration could lead to lower wages for unskilled workers, the effect was temporary and wages in the longer run increased again, the report said.
The study was financed by the Economic and Social Research Council, the government's social science research funding body, and received support from the Anglo-German Foundation.
