Migration adds billions to European economies, report claims

A new study claims that the income from taxation and the benefits of welcoming an educated workforce in EU member states adds up to tens of billions of pounds. According to an analysis by Movinga, the UK gains the most in overall earnings over 10 years with around £20.5 billion, followed by Germany with £16 billion, and France with £10.5 billion. The report claims that the overall earnings and savings from highly skilled migration to the UK over a ten year period in the STEM, Education and Healthcare sectors could cover the annual expenditure of the UK Parliament 37 times over. The overall earnings and savings from highly skilled migration to the UK over a ten year period in the Healthcare sector alone is equivalent to the cost of 37,000 secondary care (emergency) hospital beds per year.

The authors claim that the study was conducted in the hope that the results not only enrich the conversation around economic migration, but also shine a positive light on the advantages and economic gains that the internal migration of highly-skilled workers brings to many nations around Europe.

Key findings by sector

STEM

• The UK had the highest estimated number of EU professionals and technicians working in STEM (125,102), followed by France (98,968) and Germany (54,188).
• The UK gained the most from EU STEM professionals and technicians (around £10 billion), followed by France (around £6.2 billion) and Germany (around £5.8 billion).
• The overall earnings and savings from highly skilled migration to the UK in STEM alone is equivalent to a third of the UK’s annual State investment in Research and Development (£34.8 billion).

Education and Academia

• The UK had the highest estimated number of EU professionals and technicians working in Education & Academia (56,347), followed by Germany (54,623) and France (35,993).
• Germany gained the most from EU Education and Academia professionals (around £6.3 billion), followed by the UK (around £5.5 billion) and France (around £2.3 billion).
• The overall earnings and savings from highly skilled migration to the UK in the Education & Academia sector alone is equivalent to the yearly salary of around 220,000 Entry-level Primary School Teachers.

Healthcare

• The UK had the highest estimated number of EU professionals and technicians working in Healthcare (69,523), followed by Germany (44,486) and France (39,579).
• The UK gained the most from EU Healthcare professionals and technicians (around £5 billion), followed by Germany (around £3.7 billion) and Sweden (around £2.2 billion).
• The overall earnings and savings from the highly skilled migration to the UK in the Healthcare sector alone is equivalent to approximately 37,000 secondary care (emergency) hospital beds per year.

Methodology

To begin the study, the authors applied European labour statistics to analyse the movements of skilled professionals within Europe. A skilled worker was defined as a person possessing a professional education background from primary to a post-high school qualification. It was important to also define the areas of work that these professionals relocate for, so three categories were chosen that commonly attract skilled labour to other countries: STEM, Education and Academia, and Healthcare.

Next, several factors within each professional category needed to be determined in order to understand the total financial advantage to each country. Firstly, the number of migrant professionals in each destination country was identified in order to discover what proportion of the workforce were foreign nationals. As it takes time to properly assess the long-term economic impact of these professionals, the total amount of taxes they would contribute over a 10-year period was calculated. Finally, the amount it would cost the destination country to train and educate each of these foreign professionals from beginning to end was determined by calculating the total price of their primary, secondary and tertiary education within that country.

The final index combines all of these factors to reveal the overall earnings from tax income and savings on education that a European country gains by the migration of highly-skilled workers.

The table below reveals a sample of results for the top 15 European countries that receive the highest amount of overall earnings from tax income and savings in education from highly-skilled migrants across the three most common areas of work.