In response to a request from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee who are investigating the economic impact of immigration
January 14, 2008
Commenting on the government's earlier written evidence Migrationwatch chairman, Sir Andrew Green said that once again the Government had failed to make a convincing case for levels of immigration which are 25 times higher than at any time in nearly a thousand years of our history.
‘In their evidence they reiterated many of their previous arguments which have been shown to be wrong, misleading or irrelevant.
‘In our view they have completely failed to prove that the overall economic benefit of migration is other than extremely small – especially when set against the implications for our environment and quality of life of adding 18 million to our population in the next fifty years.
‘It is significant that the economic ‘benefits’ are trumpeted by the government at every opportunity but extremely little is ever heard of the ‘costs’ – such as the enormous addition to future infrastructure requirements in order to build the millions of houses required for new immigrants and the extra pressure on schools, transport and health – that will have massive ramifications for everyone living in this country for decades to come.’
Sir Andrew said that we are already very nearly the most crowded country in Europe. 70% of our population increase is due to immigration.
‘We cannot allow this to continue,’ he said. ‘Our objective now must be a broad balance between immigration and emigration.’
