By Prasun Sonwalkar, IANS
London : People of Indian origin in Britain have the highest house ownership – 86 percent – among all population groups, and figure in the top 10 groups that contribute the most to the British economy, according to a new report of a think-tank close to the ruling Labour Party published Sunday.
The report, “Britain’s Immigrants: An Economic Profile”, has been produced by the Left-leaning Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), and is likely to further fuel the ongoing debate about immigration and its impact on Britain. The government has already announced new schemes such as compulsory knowledge of English for all migrants and a new points system for entry into Britain.
With an average gross annual income of 23,200 pounds, the Indian component of Britain’s population is among the top economically 10 most active groups. The report, based on official figures, showed that migrants from economically wealthy countries such as the US, Canada and Australia contribute the most to Britain’s economy.
The India group is the only one from South Asia to figure in the top 10 economically active working-age population. The group’s average annual income is higher than that of the local British (21,250 pounds).
The report is likely to be interpreted in a way that will increase demands for tighter immigration controls. The figures presented in the report are already being seen as proving that most migrants are a drain on Britain’s economy.
The IPPR, however, said that the report was “not an attempt to cast immigrant communities in a bad or good light”. The report was commissioned by Channel 4 for a documentary (Despatches), titled “Immigrants: the Inconvenient Truth”.
The report found that fewer than half of Britain’s 650,000 Somalis, Bangladeshis, Turks and Pakistanis have jobs and that the four communities have the highest levels of benefit dependency.
According to the report, the India component of Britain (11,68,100) amounted to two percent of the total population and 71 percent of the India group was recorded as being in employment. The self-employed in the India group totalled 11 percent, the report said.
The high economic activity of the Indian group is also reflected in the average weekly hours worked – 38.5 hours – which places it in the top 10 country-of-origin groups. The report stated: “The country-of-birth group with the highest combined rate of house ownership or mortgage possession is the Indian-born (86 percent)”.
The Indian group figures ninth in the list of highest taxpayers and contributors to national insurance. The group’s weekly per capita payment towards income tax and national insurance is 162.10 pounds.
Among the lowest income tax and national insurance contributors are people born in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Poland, Somalia, China and Ghana, the report said.
In the public services, the people of Indian origin constitute 34 percent of the workforce, including a major component of Indian doctors working in the National Health Service (20 percent).
The report said: “Children of Indian background perform particularly well in school and will help to consolidate the already good performance of their Indian-born parents and grand-parents in the labour market.
“These groups are becoming part of a growing ethnic minority middle class, perhaps analogous to the growing black middle class in the US…Several groups seem to be struggling to improve economic outcomes across generations. Children of Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Turkish and Somali ethnicity achieve below-average results in British schools”.
The report concluded: “(It) is clear that on most criteria, most immigrant groups do better in economic terms than the UK-born population. Overall, when we take into account the relative size of the groups studied in this report, it would seem that the average immigrant has better economic characteristics than the average UK-born person.
“There are some immigrant communities who rank consistently lower on most indicators than the UK average. In some cases, these relatively low-ranking communities are predominantly made up of people who have come to the UK for non-economic reasons (for example, to join family members who are already in the UK, or to seek asylum).
“The analysis confirms that many immigrant groups are making positive economic contributions, either through paying high levels of tax and national insurance contributions, staffing our public services, or working long hours in potentially undesirable jobs.
“Many of these groups also appear to put little pressure on the welfare state in terms of claiming benefits, which has been a key concern in public debates around migration.
“At the same time, some immigrant communities are clearly faring less well in the UK and are unable to contribute as much as others because of the poor socio-economic situations they find themselves in.
“That many people from refugee backgrounds have gone on to contribute such a great amount to their host country should be viewed as a bonus rather than an expectation. (We) should also remember that migrants do not only contribute to the UK’s economy, but also contribute in wider social and cultural terms.
“These benefits are much harder to quantify than economic benefits, but are highly visible in our everyday lives in many other ways, such as through more diverse cuisine, richer arts and culture, and increased sporting success.”