A record number of jobless migrants in the United Kingdom are costing the country at least £8.5 billion (~$11.14 billion) annually. Around 1.68 million migrants are either looking for work or are classed as “economically inactive.”
Government Office for National Statistics (ONS) data suggests that the 2024 jobs figures represent the highest migrant joblessness rate since 2012. When social services, healthcare, transport, and other costs are considered, estimated costs to taxpayers could be far higher than £8.5 billion pounds, skyrocketing to as much as £20.3 billion (~$26.6 billion) a year.
Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, says the new leftist Labour government should stop handing out long-term visas when so many migrants are not working.
“This is the very definition of a Ponzi scheme, and we will only compound the problem if we do not change course soon,” he said.
Britain has seen unprecedented illegal and legal migration in recent years, with net immigration running at 764,000 in 2022. This is significantly straining the housing supply. To alleviate the problem and help build new homes, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner wants the country bring in even more migrants on supposedly “temporary” visas.
Other Western nations are also dealing with significant unemployment among their migrant populations. In Sweden, migrant unemployment is often several orders of magnitude above native-born Swedes. Migrants also account for around 80 percent of all welfare fraud in the country.
Meanwhile, the Danish Finance Ministry published a report noting that migrants from at least 24 different Muslim-majority countries make no net contribution to public finances.
