UK/EUROPE
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) report published can be found on the members’ page of the Textile Services Association. Its publication in September 2018 is just seven months before Britain is set to formally exit the EU in March 2019.
The TSA membership were among those who put their case on migration to the Government, which seeks to develop a post-Brexit immigration regime.
Last year the then Home Secretary Amber Rudd called on companies to respond to a Home Office-commissioned cost benefit analysis of European migration to the British economy.
Examination of these cases was conducted by the MAC and its full report – entitled “EEA migration in the UK – Final Report” – gives the MAC’s assessment of the impact of EEA migration and its recommendations for the UK’s post-Brexit work immigration system.
In its summary of evidence, the report found that, despite the significant scale of migration from EU countries over the past 15 years, the overall economic impacts have been relatively small with the main effect being an increase in population. EEA migration as a whole has not harmed the existing resident population overall, as has been claimed by some, but also has not had the significant benefit claimed by others.
The report also found that there is evidence suggesting that migration has slightly reduced employment opportunities for the UK-born especially for the lower-skilled. Some evidence shows a small negative effect of migration on earnings at the lower end of the wage distribution and a small positive effect at the upper end.
Ending free movement would not mean that visa-free travel for EEA citizens would end, just that a visa would be needed to settle in the UK for any period of time and to work, as is the case for the citizens of many non-EEA countries at the moment.
The MAC also said it important to have protection against employers using migrants to under-cut UK-born workers. The best protection is a robust approach to salary thresholds and the Immigration Skills Charge and not the Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT).
An analysis of the MAC report by GK Strategy can be found on the TSA homepage.
