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October 31, 2007 12:36 IST
It's official. More than half of all new jobs created in Britain during the last decade have been snapped up by immigrants.
According to figures released on Tuesday, out of 2.1 million jobs created under the Labour Party government since 1997, 52 per cent went to 1.1 million migrant workers, the media reported in London on Wednesday.
The data came just days after a government study had revealed that "migrant workers are both higher paid and more reliable than their British counterparts, and contributed six billion pounds to economic growth last year".
"The research showed that in the long run, our country and exchequer are better off with immigration rather than without it," British Immigration Minister Liam Byrne was quoted as saying.
According to the findings, migrants had earned 424 pounds a week on an average, compared with 395 pounds for British workers, and had paid more in tax than they consumed in services last year.
The report had also found that in 2006, record immigration pushed the number of foreign workers up to 12.5 per cent -- or one eighth -- of the labour force, compared to 7.4 per cent ten years back.
Since average output growth over this period was 2.7 per cent a year and migration contributed an estimated 15 to 20 per cent of this, the study had estimated a contribution of six billion pounds from foreign workers or nearly 700,000 pounds a day.
"In the long run, it is likely that the net fiscal contribution of an immigrant will be greater than that of a non-immigrant," the research had said, claiming that there's no evidence of foreign workers pushing British people out of
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