Immigrants invaluable to British boom

LONDON: A report on Monday saidimmigrants to Britain are better-educated than native UK-born workers. Theimmigrants generally stay stuck in blue-collar, low-wage jobs beneath theirlevels of learning, suffer horrific exploitation almost "Dickensian" in itspathos and contribute a disproportionably large amount to their adopted countryby helping to keep inflation and interest rates down. The mixedportrait of the grey zone that constitutes the lives of immigrants here came ina report linked to the heavyweight Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bankof England and a separate, hard-hitting speech by the deputy head of the TradesUnion Congress, the umbrella organization representing more than six and a halfmillion workers in Britain. The Bank of England report published onMonday by researchers linked to the MPC, paints a glowing picture of thecontribution made by immigrants to Britain. The report saysBritain's politically controversial, four-fold rise in net immigration in thepast decade is actually helping to stem wage inflation, thereby keeping interestrates down and the jobs market healthy and sustainable. The report,however, flew in the face of conventional wisdom, which decrees furtherimmigration is too much of a political hot potato for Britain to handle. It saidthe positive economic fallout could only be sustained if successive waves ofimmigrants continue to flood into the UK. Economists said this is consistentwith strong views expressed on the issue by Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank ofEngland, who has previously criticized Britain's lack of accurate,constantly-updated migration statistics, which are seen to be critical to theMPC's view of spare capacity in the economy. In an ironiccoincidence, the Bank of England's sunshine picture of immigrant abilities andcontribution to the UK economy came on the very day the TUC's deputy generalsecretary decided to spell out the "horror" stories of life as a migrant workerin Britain.The TUC's Frances O'Grady said migrants often livedthrough a "Dickensian nightmare (except that it was) happening here and now inBritain".Calling for a "social agreement" between government,employers and trades unions on migration, O'Grady said, in apparent concurrencewith the Bank's report: "Migrant workers make a massive contribution to oureconomy, public services and national life." But she added, "Some have apositive experience of working in Britain, but the day-to-day reality many faceis exploitation, dangerous working conditions, and employment far below theirskill level."Meanwhile, the Bank's report used existing immigrationfigures to reveal that the proportion of foreign-born residents in Britain agedbetween 16 and 64 had risen in the last decade from eight per cent in 1995 to 11per cent. It said one-fifth were from the Indian sub-continent,another fifth born in the European Union and one- quarter were from Africa orWest Asia. The Bank said just under half of those who had migrated to Britain inthe past two years had university degrees, a high level of educationalattainment compared to British workers, just 17 per cent of whom arepostgraduates. The Bank's researchers Jumana Saleheen and ChrisShadforth, who analysed the immigration figures, said that immigrants appearedto play a disproportionate role in key sectors vulnerable to shortages. Theseincluded some white-collar professional jobs in the National Health Service andfinancial sector but the bulk of immigrant employment was to be found inlow-skilled "elementary" jobs such as cleaners and shelf stackers, they said.The report said that most immigrants were overqualified for thegenerally menial paid work they found in Britain but these workers still "tendto be younger, better educated and work longer hours than those born in theUnited Kingdom". They said Britain was still to construct a clearpicture of the eventual frustration over-qualified immigrants experience whenworking at low-skilled jobs. Many, said the researchers, might eventually findjobs more consistent with their qualifications, others could return to theirhomeland but the overall picture, they said was fuzzy and unclear.The nine-member MPC, which sets interest rates and includes thegovernor of the Bank of England, two deputy governors, the Bank's chiefeconomist, an executive director for markets and four external members appointeddirectly by the British chancellor.