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Unit 1 Micro - Labour Migration and the Economy
5th March 2012
Migration from one country to another has become an increasingly important feature of our globalizing world and it raises many important economic, social and political issues. About 200-million people — about 3% of the world’s population — now live in countries in which they were not born. In the United Kingdom in 2010, the number of international migrants as a percentage of the population rose above 10% for the first time after several years of high rates of net inward migration
Further background: Latest UK Migration Statistics
1. Estimated total long-term immigration to the UK in the year to June 2011 was 593,000. This compares to 582,000 in the year to June 2010 and has remained at a similar level since 2004
2. Estimated total long-term emigration from the UK in the year to June 2011 was 343,000. This is similar to 347,000 in the year to June 2010 and a decrease of 32,000 from the year ending June 2008
3. Net migration was 250,000 in the year to June 2011. Since the year to June 2010 when net migration was 235,000, it has peaked at 255,000 in the year to September 2010 and remained steady since
The Points Based System (PBS)
The UK PBS is a rationalisation of immigration control processes for people coming into the UK for the purposes of work or study who are not EEA or Swiss nationals. Entries are classed into five tiers.
* Tier 1 is for highly skilled workers
* Tier 2 is for skilled workers with a job offer
* Tier 3 is low skilled workers – this entry route is currently suspended
* Tier 4 is for students
* Tier 5 is for youth mobility and temporary workers
UK panel backs cap on non-EU immigrants (November 2010)
UK migration remains at record levels (Feb 2012)
Non-EU migration affects unemployment, says report (January 2012)
How immigration policy plays out in the workplace (Newsnight, November 2011)
Migration to Peterborough strains services (BBC news, August 2011)
Skilled migrants to lose right to settle in UK (Guardian February 2012)
Immigrants ‘should benefit Britain, not just benefit from Britain’, says minister - video (Guardian)
How Britain’s migrants sewed the fabric of the nation (Guardian, February 2012)
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.