Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-16.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of immigration on the level of economic productivity over the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.

Greg Hands

As noted in the 2012 report by the Migration Advisory Committee the empirical literature suggests that the impact of migration on productivity may be mixed and heavily dependent on the type of migrant coming to the UK. Migrants may increase productivity either through a simple ‘batting average’ effect if they work in higher productivity roles relative to the average for non-migrants, or through increasing the productivity of UK workers through greater specialisation and knowledge transfer.