The UK and France this week confirmed a returns agreement, in which those arriving on small boats would be sent back to France, in exchange for the UK making a safe route for asylum seekers in France who have not attempted to cross the Channel.
Those close to negotiations said that France wants the UK to reduce its attractiveness to asylum seekers, pointing particularly to the British labour market and the lack of national ID cards. French president Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that it was too easy for migrants to find work illegally in the UK.
But is the UK’s illegal work economy actually any worse than its European counterparts?
However, different studies help build up a picture of the UK’s clandestine migrant economy.
This equates to between 1.2 and 1.8 per cent of the UK’s population.
The World Bank estimates that the UK has a smaller informal work economy than France, Germany or Italy.
While there aren’t specific records on illegal asylum seeker work, the models look at people who are self-employed, without a pension, or in otherwise informal employment.
A group of people thought to be asylum seekers wade into the to board an approaching small boat at Gravelines, France, in an attempt to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel (Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)In the second model, the UK was estimated to make 12.8 per cent of its GDP through formal output, compared with 15.4 for France, 15.6 per cent for Germany and 29.8 per cent for Italy.
UK already stringent on illegal work
“The French argument is that our perceived liberal labor market regulations and lack of ID cards attract migrants. However, there’s little evidence of how a lack of an ID card system acts as a draw to migrants,” he said.
“Scrupulous legal employers do that already. You of course have unscrupulous employers everywhere, but they exist in France, as they do in the UK.”
Asylum seeker work restricted in the UK
In the UK, asylum seekers can only work after they have been waiting on their claim for more than a year, and can only take up jobs in very limited number of fields.
There are no published figures on how many asylum seekers have been granted the right to work in the UK.
This is more restrictive than
France, where asylum seekers can apply to work after six months, Germany, where asylum seekers may be able to work after three months, and Italy, where asylum seekers can seek employment 60 days after submitting their application. A migrant dinghy pictured as it prepared to sail into the English Channel from Gravelines, France. (Photo: Carl Court/Getty)The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) found that allowing all asylum seekers in the UK to work could save the Government a total of £6.7bn each year, increase tax revenue by £1.3bn each year and add £1.6bn to the UK’s annual GDP.
Allowing asylum seekers who have been waiting six months for their claim, rather than straight away, could lead to economic gains of £4.4bn each year, a tax revenue increase of £880m and additions of £1bn to GDP, the analysis found.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( How many migrants are estimated to work illegally in UK – compared with Europe )
Also on site :