Mark Carney-The Economic Truth About Migrants.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/14/eu-poll-should-take-place-as-soon-as-necessary-says-bank-of-england-chief

Carney also played down the idea that cheap foreign labour was to blame for poor UK productivity and weak wage growth.

The governor said he wanted to “really dampen down” that view, arguing that a better explanation of weak wage growth was the increase in the number of British people willing to work. He highlighted a jump in the number of older people wanting to work, as well as a rise in the number of people wanting to work more hours.

He said: “The facts of this recovery have been there has been a huge growth in employment, one of the strongest job markets in the world, and we have seen a big increase in the willingness of the British people, British nationals, to work.

“In the course of the last two years, the number of older workers – people in their 50s and 60s – who stayed in the labour market has been 300,000 more than we would have seen in previous times. In addition, people want to work more hours. That’s another 200,000 to 300,000 more workers, effectively more workers.”

“Compare that to the increase in net migration – the increase in the number of people coming to these shores – the first two numbers I just gave you total up to more than 500,000, the increase in net migration over that same period in the last two years is 50,000.

“So the real story here is that British people have wanted to work more and what’s happened with the economy.”

Carney said productivity should pick up because spare capacity is being used up. He added that migrants tend to contribute to improved productivity over time, starting in jobs for which they are over-qualified before securing jobs more suited to their skills.

He said: “They contribute to that increase in productivity. That is something we see across the economy