Just wondering, why not do it the other way round? Make the immigrants pay higher taxes. (Only the first generation; because their children are already born in this country.) For the immigrants, it is presumably still a big improvement over living in their country of origin. For the local people, it removes the “but we would have to pay higher taxes” argument.
The biggest problem with the headline is that it assumes “immigrants” are a homogenous group. There could be some groups that are good for the country and some which are not, in which case you could still justify keeping the second group out. If you read the article it even says “However the report highlights that not all groups of migrants make a positive fiscal contribution to the UK and in some cases migrants can represent a burden for public finances.”
Also, this doesn’t count losses in utility that happen to locals because of immigrants but don’t involve collecting benefits, such as increases in crime rates or unemployment rates.
In order to do that the immigrants would have to pay enough in taxes to make up for the loss in utility by the preexisting residents. Some groups of immigrants, such as immigrants resembling the current Mexican illegals, may not be able to pay that. Furthermore, the same political groups who want more immigrants would oppose such a plan to the point where it won’t be feasible.
And the fact that they have children in this country is part of what decreases utility for the people already in the country.
Just wondering, why not do it the other way round? Make the immigrants pay higher taxes. (Only the first generation; because their children are already born in this country.) For the immigrants, it is presumably still a big improvement over living in their country of origin. For the local people, it removes the “but we would have to pay higher taxes” argument.
Immigrants to the UK pay, on average, more taxes than native Brits.
The biggest problem with the headline is that it assumes “immigrants” are a homogenous group. There could be some groups that are good for the country and some which are not, in which case you could still justify keeping the second group out. If you read the article it even says “However the report highlights that not all groups of migrants make a positive fiscal contribution to the UK and in some cases migrants can represent a burden for public finances.”
Also, this doesn’t count losses in utility that happen to locals because of immigrants but don’t involve collecting benefits, such as increases in crime rates or unemployment rates.
That’s quite interesting, and does refute a lot of the people who argue against all immigration. But the UK does have some forms of boarder control.
In order to do that the immigrants would have to pay enough in taxes to make up for the loss in utility by the preexisting residents. Some groups of immigrants, such as immigrants resembling the current Mexican illegals, may not be able to pay that. Furthermore, the same political groups who want more immigrants would oppose such a plan to the point where it won’t be feasible.
And the fact that they have children in this country is part of what decreases utility for the people already in the country.