Title: Recent immigrants to UK 'make net contribution' - BBC News
Headings: Recent immigrants to UK 'make net contribution'
Recent immigrants to UK 'make net contribution'
Immigrants to the UK since 2000 have made a "substantial" contribution to public finances, a report says.
'Highly-educated immigrants'
Career peak
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Content: Prof Dustmann said it had shown that "in contrast with most other European countries, the UK attracts highly-educated and skilled immigrants from within the EEA as well as from outside". He added: " Our study also suggests that over the last decade or so, the UK has benefited fiscally from immigrants from EEA countries, who have put in considerably more in taxes and contributions than they received in benefits and transfers. "Given this evidence, claims about 'benefit tourism' by EEA immigrants seem to be disconnected from reality." Sir Andrew Green of the pressure group Migration Watch said the report had "been spun". "We've had roughly four million immigrants under the previous government - two-thirds of those were from outside the European Union," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He said the report found that, "since 1995, they have made a negative contribution overall". He added: " So the verdict for non-EU is that the benefit to the exchequer is minimal or negative." He accepted that "if you take the whole of the EU", the benefit was "clearly positive".