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Migrant Romanian workers pick the last chardonnay grapes of the year Photograph: Jason Alden /Rex Features
Migrant Romanian workers pick the last chardonnay grapes of the year Photograph: Jason Alden /Rex Features

Too few voters understand immigrants’ role in UK recovery

This article is more than 9 years old
Positive views on immigration rise with financial literacy, but uninformed majority could still turn to Ukip, study finds

The more “financially literate” a person is, the more likely they are to hold positive views on immigration, according to a new study that raises further questions over the paucity of mainstream political debate about the influence of migrants on the economy.

As Labour and the Tories are accused of avoiding talk of the positive impact of inward migration on the recovery, research into the views of tens of thousands of Britons reveals that the higher an individual’s level of financial knowledge, the more likely they are to see immigration as “good for the economy”.

The research, by the British Election Study (BES), a group of academics which has examined Britain’s electoral behaviour since 1964, found that people are significantly less likely to regard immigrants as a burden on the welfare state if they understand fundamental economic principles.

The study, which used panel surveys of up to 30,000 people, found that those who correctly understood interest rates, inflation and risk diversification were statistically more likely to agree with the notion that immigration “enriches Britain’s cultural life”.

One of the report’s authors, Robert Wright, professor of economics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, said: “What is really interesting about this immigration stuff is that the more you understand how labour markets work, and how taxes work and are spent, the more positive you are towards immigration. It’s as simple as that.”

He said politicians should be discussing the issue much more in the run-up to the election, particularly the assumption that immigrants “steal” British jobs.

“You can always find one person who has lost out to some immigrant, some guy from Poland, but generally it’s not the case – many immigrants end up in jobs that wouldn’t be filled anyway,” said Wright, whose findings about the relationship between financial literacy and political attitudes will be published at the annual conference of the Royal Economics Society at the end of this month.

Wright also identified one pessimistic trend, saying that the fact that relatively few people had a sophisticated level of financial knowledge meant the majority could be swayed into joining the anti-immigration camp.

On Thursday the Office for Budget Responsibility articulated the importance of migration in driving Britain’s recovery, explaining that the unforeseen rise in net migration to 298,000 in the past year – three times the Tories’ target – had been a key factor in its decision to upgrade its forecasts for Britain’s economic growth. It calculated that net migration will add 0.6% to the potential output of the British economy, far from being a burden on it, will increase net tax receipts.

As well as asking individuals questions about their financial literacy, the BES survey also questioned them about their attitudes towards immigration, namely whether it was good or bad for the economy, whether it enhanced cultural life and whether they thought migrants were a burden.

The survey factored in variables such as education, an issue that has been shown to be a key factor in understanding variation in a broad range of political attitudes. The report says: “Understanding the role played by immigrants in a modern economy such as the UK requires a considerable understanding of economics and finance, and particularly of the relationship immigrants have to the labour market.”

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