Study finds EU migrants get jobs more easily than nationals

As part of the OECD’s recently published International Migrant Outlook, statistics relating migrant movements around the EU are suggesting that migrant workers are finding jobs more easily than nationals.

The Paris-based think tank estimates that around one million Bulgarians are planning to emigrate once the EU Freedom of Movement laws are validated in 2014, although not all are expected to head for Britain. In the UK, although unemployment has fallen slightly over the last several years, British nationals are being pipped at the jobs posts by migrants.

In Poland and the Czech Republic as well as in the UK, foreign-born men have reversed the skills shortfall in the pre-crisis years and are now doing better than their native-born counterparts. The crunch of the report was that migrants are not costing the host country more as they are in work and paying taxes.

The report is being heavily criticised by Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, who is calling for a full assessment of immigration’s effect on the jobs available for British workers. Anecdotal evidence, he says, is very strong on the subject of why British workers are not benefiting from the decrease in unemployment.

In reality, Green is complaining that migrants are actually working for a living and contributing to the economy, rather that sitting at home and drawing benefits. Even stronger anecdotal evidence suggests that many British workers refuse to take on low-paying jobs.

The OECD report stresses that, in all major economies, migrants contribute in tax as much as they receive in benefits such as child support and housing allowance. Don Flynn of the Migrants’ Rights Network supports the OECD findings, saying they should calm fears that migration is a negative for developed countries’ economies.