Immigration

Blog

Economics Observatory:

The fear of strangers: why do some people reject immigration?

Exaggerated anxiety followed by gradual accommodation is one of the most consistent features of Western immigration history - with first Catholics, then Jews and now Muslims feared. In thinking about issues of cultural d...Read more...

Blog

LSE British Politics:

Brexit was supposed to limit immigration, it did the opposite

Being able to control immigration from the EU became one of the defining issues of the Vote Leave campaign. While Brexit has meant the end of free movement from the EU, immigration to the UK has since risen to record lev...Read more...

Blog

LSE British Politics:

Reducing the youth minimum wage would be a mistake

After a recent rise in youth unemployment, according to the Office for National Statistics, concerns have grown about whether a rising minimum wage is making firms reluctant to take on younger workers. Alan Manning looks...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Make immigration boring again

A polarised debate ignores the trade-offs involved, we can do better....Read more...

Blog

UK in a Changing Europe:

Why immigration policy is hard and how to make it better

Alan Manning argues that the UK needs to move away from the current divisive debate on immigration that portrays immigration as either wholly good or wholly bad in order to create more effective immigration policy....Read more...

Government consultation

Commons' Home Affairs Committee

Alan Manning gave evidence to the Commons Home Affairs committee on its recent immigration proposals. As part of its strategy to reduce net migration, the Government has set out plans to make major changes to the eligibi...Read more...

Book

Why Immigration Policy Is Hard: And How to Make It Better
An indispensable resource for informed debate on one of the most charged subjects in public life today.

Immigration policy is hard, involving difficult decisions and trade-offs. But, as Alan Manning - former chair of the UK's Migration Advisory Committee - makes clear, this doesn't mean that we can't do much better. We sh...Read more...

Government consultation

Lords' Justice and Home Affairs Committee

Alan Manning gave evidence to the Lords' Justice and Home Affairs Committee....Read more...

Journal article

The Economic Journal:

Monopsony and the wage effects of migration

If labour markets are competitive, migration can only affect native wages via marginal products. But under imperfect competition, migration may also increase wage mark-downs ? if firms have greater monopsony power over m...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Immigration demand, supply and sectoral heterogeneity in the UK labour market

The empirical migration literature often identifies the labor market effects of immigration using exogenous variation of migration concentration across sectors or regions. However, this approach differences out macroecon...Read more...

Journal article

Demography:

Population growth, immigration, and labor market dynamics

This article provides a first synthesis of population flows and labor market dynamics across immigrant and native-born populations. We devise a novel dynamic accounting methodology that integrates population flows from t...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Immigration and political realignment

This paper examines how immigration reshapes political landscapes, centring on the influx of immigrants from the EU's 2004 enlargement and its implications for the UK. I use a new variation in exposure to immigration bas...Read more...

CentrePiece article

In brief... The discussion of immigration needs to improve

Those who believe in a more open, liberal approach to immigration often frame their argument as being on the side of `good economics? versus `bad politics?. Alan Manning explains why the arguments presented as `good econ...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization:

Does growing up in economic hard times increase compassion? The case of attitudes towards immigration

There is some evidence that people who grew up in economic hard times more strongly favor government redistribution and are more compassionate towards the poor. We investigate how inclusive this increase in compassion is...Read more...

Blog

LSE British Politics and Policy:

The discussion of immigration needs to improve

Those who believe in a more open, liberal approach to immigration often frame their argument as being on the side of "good economics" versus "bad politics". Alan Manning explains why the arguments presented as "good econ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Immigration, monopsony and the distribution of firm pay

We argue that the arrival of immigrants with low reservation wages can strengthen the monopsony power of firms. Firms can exploit "cheap" migrant labor by offering lower wages, though at the cost of forgoing potential na...Read more...

Blog

LSE British Politics and Policy:

From boom to bust in British immigration policy

A series of measures to slash immigration have been announced by the government making it harder for employers to hire overseas staff. Alan Manning looks at what the changes mean for would-be immigrants and their familie...Read more...

External report

Why are the latest net migration figures not a reliable guide to future trends?

This report examines how different types of immigration contribute to net migration in the long term, and what levels of net migration the UK might expect in coming years....Read more...

Blog

LSE EUROPP:

A better understanding of pay-as-you-go pension systems leads to more positive attitudes toward migrants

A better understanding of pay-as-you-go pension systems and population trends can lead to more positive attitudes toward migrants, but only among individuals who support non-populist parties, find Tito Boeri, Matteo Gama...Read more...

Journal article

Economica:

'Good jobs', training and skilled immigration

Has skilled immigration into the UK led to a reduction in the training of native-born workers? To address this concern, this paper describes a theoretical model where immigration can affect the training of native-born wo...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Growth and immigration: unpicking the confusion

More people in a country leads to a bigger economy, but not necessarily an improved standard of living. Alan Manning unpicks the complexities in the debate....Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Background matters, but not whether parents are immigrants: outcomes of children born in Denmark

On average, children born in Denmark with immigrant parents (first-generation locals) have lower earnings, higher unemployment, less education, more welfare transfers, and more criminal convictions than children with loc...Read more...

Blog

LSE British Politics and Policy:

The link between growth and immigration: unpicking the confusion

More people in a country leads to a bigger economy, but not necessarily an improved standard of living. Alan Manning unpicks the complexities in the debate....Read more...

Journal article

Journal of the European Economic Association :

Talents and cultures: immigrant inventors and ethnic diversity in the age of mass migration

We investigate the importance of co-ethnic networks and diversity in determining immigrant inventors' settlements in the United States by following the location choices of thousands of them across counties during the Age...Read more...

CentrePiece article

UK labour shortages and immigration: looking at the evidence

Can the shortages of workers reported by the UK's food and drink sector be solved by making it easier to hire migrants? How will wages in these sectors change? And is there a conflict between short- and long-term fixes? ...Read more...

CentrePiece article

What have the 2021 Nobel laureates done for us?

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens. Jorn-Steffen Pischke explains how the use of natural experiments in empirical economics, work in which they were pione...Read more...

Journal article

Wirtschaftsdienst:

Natural Experiments in Labor Economics and Beyond: the 2021 Nobel laureates David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens

This year?s Nobel Prize in Economics honoured David Card of the University of California, Berkeley ?for his empirical contributions to labour economics?, and Joshua Angrist of MIT and Guido Imbens of Stanford University ...Read more...

Blog

LSE Politics and Policy:

The only way to substantially reduce the number of migrants crossing the Channel is through an agreement with France

Current government policy, whatever its rhetoric, is to muddle on, trying to deter crossings, trying to return migrants to safe countries but recognising that borders are inevitably porous. Muddling on is often an under-...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Population growth, immigration and labour market dynamics

This paper examines the role of population flows on labour market dynamics across immigrant and native-born populations in the United Kingdom. Population flows are large, and cyclical, driven first by the maturation of b...Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

Natural experiments in labour economics and beyond: the 2021 Nobel laureates David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to David Card of the University of California, Berkeley, "for his empirical contributions to labour economics", and to Joshua Angrist of MIT and Guido Imbens of ...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

UK labour shortages and immigration: looking at the evidence

Can the shortages of workers reported by the food and drink sector be solved by making it easier to hire migrants? How will wages in these sectors change? Is there a conflict between short- and long-term fixes? Alan Mann...Read more...

Blog

State of Working Britain Blog:

1 million missing immigrants (and 1.2 million more UK-born)

Jonathan Wadsworth examines the Labour Force Survey, highlighting the strange case of a rapid fall of around 750,000 in the immigrant population of working age over the last year contained in the latest ONS labour market...Read more...

Blog

State of Working Britain Blog:

Two things about ethnicity pay gaps that may have passed you by

Last week the ONS published a study setting out recent trends in ethnicity pay gaps. Despite lots of caveats in the article, many papers duly reported the end of pay gaps by ethnicity. There are reasons to think however...Read more...

Government consultation

Channel crossings, migration and asylum-seeking routes through the EU

This inquiry will examine the reasons behind the growth in migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. It will look at the role of criminal gangs in facilitating the growth of this form of illegal immigration a...Read more...

Journal article

Fiscal Studies:

Off EU go? Brexit, the UK labour market and immigration

Immigration remains a highly antagonistic issue and its purported effects in the labour market are still contestable. Against this background, the UK looks set to undertake a large overhaul of its immigration policy foll...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of International Economics:

Immigration, trade and productivity in services: evidence from UK firms

This paper explores the impact of immigrants on the imports, exports and productivity of service-producing firms in the U.K. Immigrants may substitute for imported intermediate inputs (offshore production) and they may i...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Why immigration is no reason to leave the EU

A major argument of Brexit campaigners is that leaving the European Union would give the UK more control over the flow of immigrants, who they claim hurt the jobs and pay of native-born workers. CEP research shows that E...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Immigration: the link to international trade in services

Two notable features of globalisation are the growth of immigration and the growth of international trade in services. Exploring links between these phenomena, Gianmarco Ottaviano, Giovanni Peri and Greg Wright find that...Read more...

CEP election analysis

Immigration and the UK Labour Market

During periods of strong economic growth, migration is and has always been important for filling gaps in the labour market. Perceptions do not seem to line up with the existing academic evidence. On balance, the evidence...Read more...

CEP policy analysis

Immigration, the European Union and the UK Labour Market

During periods of strong economic growth, migration is and has always been important for filling gaps in the labour market. On balance, the evidence for the UK labour market suggests that fears about adverse consequences...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Immigrant's access to social housing: perception and reality

Although most UK immigrants are likely to be eligible to apply for social housing, there is no evidence that they have preferential access ? if anything the reverse seems to have been the case. But it does seem that ther...Read more...

Journal article

Review of Economics and Statistics:

Crime and immigration: evidence from large immigrant waves

This paper focuses on empirical connections between crime and immigration, studying two large waves of recent UK immigration (the late 1990s/early 2000s asylum seekers and the post-2004 inflow from EU accession countries...Read more...

CEP election analysis

Immigration: The Evidence from Economic Research

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CentrePiece article

Immigration and the UK labour market

David Metcalf, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), outlines recent changes in the regulatory framework for immigrant workers....Read more...

CentrePiece article

In brief... Mother tongue: the economics of language learning

Javier Ortega and Gregory Verdugo look at the drivers of language assimilation in the English- and French-majority cities in Canada....Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Musn't Grumble. Immigration, Health and Health Service Use in the UK and Germany

A rise in population caused by increased immigration, is sometimes accompanied by concerns that the increase in population puts additional or differential pressure on welfare services which might affect the net fiscal co...Read more...

CEP policy analysis

Immigration and the UK Labour Market: The latest evidence from economic research

During periods of strong economic growth, migration is and has always been important for filling gaps in the labour market. On balance, the evidence for the UK labour market suggests that fears about the consequences of ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Assimilation in Multilingual Cities

Using the Public Use Microdata Files of the 2001 and 2006 Canadian Censuses, we study the determinants of the assimilation of language minorities into the city majority language. We show that official minority members (i...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of the European Economic Association:

The impact of immigration on the structure of wages: theory and evidence from Britain

Immigration to the UK, particularly among more educated workers, has risen appreciably over the past 30 years and as such has raised labor supply. However studies of the impact of immigration have failed to find any sign...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Immigration and the Occupational Choice of Natives: A Factor Proportions Approach

This paper evaluates the impact of immigration on the labor market outcomes of natives in France over the period 1962-1999. Combining large (up to 25%) extracts from six censuses and data from Labor Force Surveys, we exp...Read more...

CEP election analysis

CEP Election Analysis 2010 - The complete Series, discussing research on some of the key policy battlegrounds of the 2010 General Election

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CEP election analysis

Immigration and the UK Labour Market: The Evidence from Economic Research

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SERC/Urban and Spatial Programme Discussion Paper

The Impact of Immigration on Occupational Wages: Evidence from Britain

This paper asks whether immigration to Britain has had any impact on average wages. There seems to be a broad consensus among academics that the share of immigrants in the workforce has little or no effect on the pay rat...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The Economic Situation of First- and Second-Generation Immigrants in France, Germany and the United Kingdom

A central concern about immigration is the integration into the labour market, not only of the first generation, but also of subsequent generations. Little comparative work exists for Europe?s largest economies. France, ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Change and Continuity Among Minority Communities in Britain

There is widespread concern currently that some ethnic minority communities within Britain, especially Muslim, are not following the stereotypical immigrant path of economic and cultural assimilation into British society...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

On the Relative Gains to Immigration: A Comparison of the Labour Market Position of Indians in the USA, the UK and India

While most studies of the decision to immigrate focus on the absolute income differences between countries, we argue that relative change in purchasing power or status, as captured by an individual?s ranking in the wage ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Culture Clash or Culture Club? The Identity and Attitudes of Immigrants in Britain

There is economic evidence that diversity has consequences for economic performance (see Alesina and La Ferrara, 2005). This might have consequences for immigration policy ? how many immigrants to allow into a country an...Read more...