joe-90 said:
ban-all-sheds said:
One in fifty of our population is now an illegal immigrant working the black economy taking jobs from UK residents.
Then let's regularise them, boost the economy, and make it impossible for employers to exploit them and pay them illegally low wages. Then they wouldn't be so cheap to employ.
That would be economic suicide.
The Home Office estimate that there are between 310,000 and 570,000 illegal immigrants in the UK.
Deporting them would cost
£4.7 billion, and leave acute shortages of cleaners, care workers and hotel staff.
If allowed to live and work legally, they would pay more than
£1 billion in tax each year.
£1 billion per year would allow the Treasury to abolish the starting rate of stamp duty or increase the Child Tax Credit by
£150.
£1 billion + £4.7 billion saved by not deporting would pay for
300 new schools, or
12 district hospitals or
200,000 new nurses.
Nearly 50% of foreign-born immigrants leave Britain within 5 years. Immigrants are much more likely to stay for short periods, or to circulate between home and host countries if they are able to get back in.
Remittances home from immigrant workers provide a very effective form of poverty relief in 3rd world countries.
Migrants fill
90% of low-paid jobs in London, and account for
29% of the capital's work force.
Legal migrants comprise
8.7% of the population, but contribute
10.2% of all taxes.
Each immigrant pays an average of
£7,203 in tax compared with
£6,861 for non-migrant workers.
There were 25,715 people claiming asylum last year - if allowed to work they would generate
£123M in tax revenues.
In 2005, Spain completed a large-scale regularisation programme, and the government estimates that it increased revenue by
€750 million in 2005, and is set to add a further
€1,350 million in 2006.