It will replenish a labour force depleted by an ageing population. It will generate lots of extra tax revenue for the Government and stop debt from spiralling out of control. And it will inject some much needed dynamism into a business culture that would otherwise stagnate. For the last two decades, there has been a suffocating consensus that higher immigration is vital for the economy. Anyone who argued otherwise was ignoring the evidence.
But hold on. A major paper published this week punctures that notion, arguing against the idea that changing demographics will be ruinous to certain countries. This ought to trigger a grown-up debate about immigration – and perhaps an admission that, while it may have plenty of benefits, it won’t necessarily always make us richer.
