Immigration Untruths

An Oxford based academic has exposed as, 'pure, unsupported speculation' tabloid accusations that migrants are a drain on the state.
Carlos Vargas Silva's research, published on theconversation.com, put the conclusions of seasoned migrant-bashing rag the Daily Mail under the spotlight after it wrote that migrants from within the EU cost British taxpayers 'billions of pounds a year'.
It drew this conclusion from new government figures showing a major increase in the number of people from EU accession countries claiming benefits - up from 12,600 in 2008 to nearly 50,000 in 2012.
Silva found no fault with the figures. But he sought to test the Daily Mail's conclusion that EU migrants drain public coffers with a simple sum: to subtract the benefits and services migrants receive from the taxes they pay and contributions they make.
This information had not been collected. But Silva did find evidence that called the Daily Mail's claim into question. A fiscal impact study covering 2004-08 showed a net contribution by migrants in Britain, while a recent OECD study estimated a $4,000 contribution per household for 2007-09.

from New Internationalist NI 466, October 2013 under Creative Commons license.

Will Daily Mail readers be given the opportunity to learn the actual facts rather than just having access to jingoistic, speculative nonsense? Probably not.
JS