The Financial Times referenced the study conducted by our Director Christian Dustmann, Yannis Kastis (CReAM), and Ian Preston (University College London) in an article titled “UK Immigration: Why Public Opinion Is at Odds with Reality” by Peter Foster and Amy Borrett. The article discusses the academic research and official data that challenge common misconceptions about the impact of immigration on the economy and society.
The article notes:
“Research has shown that while immigration hit lower-paid workers harder than higher-paid workers, the overall effects were tiny. A study by the Nuffield Foundation think-tank of UK immigration between 1994 and 2016 found it had reduced the hourly wage of UK-born wage earners in the bottom 20 per cent of the labour market by about 0.5p per year, while the top 10 per cent experienced a gain of 1.7p.”
This statement is based on the research conducted by Christian Dustmann, Yannis Kastis, and Ian Preston, particularly their 2022 study “Inequality and Immigration,” which was part of an initiative by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
You can read the full study here: https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Inequality-and-immigration-IFS-Deaton-Review-of-Inequalities.pdf.
This research underscores the nuanced effects of immigration on the UK economy, illustrating how it has contributed to both economic and social well-being, while also addressing the often misleading narratives that dominate immigration debates.
