Immigrants are a net cost to the economy and not a benefit as the British government has claimed

Philip Johnston:

The study by Migrationwatch UK challenges official figures suggesting that immigrants annually contribute £2.5 billion more to the economy in taxes than they receive in benefits and state services.

It accuses Whitehall of using "entirely false" methodology to back up its claims by failing to take full account of the children of immigrants.

Researchers for the think tank said the Home Office only apportioned dependent children to the migrant population if both parents or the sole parent were foreign-born.

Children of "mixed" households, those who had one UK-born parent and one foreign-born parent, were attributed entirely to the native population.

This meant that in these "mixed" households, the cost of all the children was attributed to the UK-born parent and none of the costs fell to the immigrant community.

As there are some 1.4 million children of "mixed" households, Migrationwatch said this had "a decisive effect" on the result.

The report says the original research, widely and regularly quoted by ministers, chose the only assumption that could deliver the "positive" result they were seeking.

"By recalculating the figures and using the more equitable method of apportioning these children equally between the immigrant and native British communities the £2.5 billion 'surplus' becomes a £200 million deficit," it adds.

Sir Andrew Green, the chairman of Migrationwatch, said: "Our research completely demolishes the Government's last remaining excuse for the highest levels of immigration in our history by exposing a serious error in their methodology.

"The Government has used this statistic on every possible occasion but now it has been shown up as entirely worthless."

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