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Why we need to learn to live with migration

A new report from the World Bank and the IMF shows that large-scale movement of people is both inevitable and beneficial

October 08, 2015
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This week, Home Secretary Theresa May was criticised for a speech in which she advocated much tighter controls on immigration. The Institute of Directors (IoD), a group which represents UK businesses, said that May was "pandering to anti-immigration sentiment," adding that immigration was vital for UK prosperity: "Immigrants do not steal jobs, they help fill vital skill shortages and, in doing so, create demand and more jobs."

A report published yesterday by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) creates more problems for those who would like levels of immigration into the UK to be much lower. This year's edition of the "global monitoring report" concludes that large-scale migration from poorer to richer countries will be an unavoidable issue for decades. What's more, it says that this presents a massive opportunity for both poor and rich countries if harnessed correctly. 

Here's why rich countries need to rethink their immigration policy:

We need workers

The share of the global population that is of working age has peaked at 66 per cent and is now on the decline. But while the elderly may begin to grow as a proportion of the population across the world (doubling to almost 16 per cent by 2050), this varies widely between countries. Poorer countries often have much larger proportions of working-age people than richer ones. Britain, and other countries like it, could suffer in future from having too few working-age people unless plenty of such people are allowed to immigrate and are helped to find work in ways beneficial to them and to the country as a whole.

Migration won't fall

Between 1990 and 2013, the report finds, the stock of migrants from some of the world's least developed countries living in some of the world's most-developed countries increased by 150 per cent. While development in those countries further down the ladder might reduce levels of migration, that depends on how that development happens; whether, for example, it significantly increases employment opportunities. The impact of global conflicts—which drive large migration is also likely to be a factor for some time. Large levels of migration from poor to rich countries is going to be a fact of life in the coming decades.

Everyone can benefit

Reducing the barriers to international migration could bring large benefits, the report says. Because of the potential for immigrants to redress the age imbalance in higher-income countries' populations, the World Bank believes that a rise in migration which would increase the workforce of higher-income countries by 3 per cent over 10 years would produce a global gain in real income of $674bn.