Will net zero migration make us all poorer? If you believe the latest “analysis” by Oxford Economics, it “risks blowing a £700bn hole in the economy by 2026”.
In an echo of the Brexit campaign, the report is being used to challenge Reform’s plans to transform the British immigration system, reverse the post-Covid migration wave and end Indefinite Leave to Remain. Unfortunately for open-borders advocates, the analysis doesn’t add up.
One very obvious weakness is that it is solely concerned with GDP, rather than GDP per capita. The difference is that GDP measures the size of the whole economy, whereas GDP per capita tells us the average economic output per person. Per capita is a much better measure of how rich a country and its people are.
