Eastern Europeans who have come to live and work in Britain since 2004 have made a positive contribution to state finances, research published Thursday showed, according to dpa. The Poles, Czechs and other nationalities who moved to Britain with European Union (EU) expansion in 2004 had paid "substantially more in taxes than they have received in benefits," the study by academics at University College London (UCL) found. The migrants had made a "substantial net contribution to the UK fiscal system," said Professor Christian Dustmann, who led the research. During the fiscal year of 2008/2009 arrivals from the so-called A8 countries paid 37 per cent more in taxes than they took in welfare payments and from public services, he said. "From the fiscal point of view, this immigration has not been at all a burden on the welfare system. Rather, it has contributed to strengthen the fiscal position," Dustmann told the Financial Times. Dustmann, who heads the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration at UCL, found immigrants were "on average younger and better educated than the native population." But the new arrivals were also prepared to work for much lower wages - on average a third less - and were 60 per cent less likely to claim benefits. The study, which looked at arrivals between 2004 and 2008, found around 90 per cent of working age men and three-quarters of working age women had jobs. During the recession, immigrant workers may have fared better in the employment market than native Britons because of their better skills and qualification, Dustmann said. Someone needing to shed jobs in a restaurant "may well keep the Polish graduate and dismiss the less skilled British worker," he said. The 2004 EU enlargement took in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland. Around 700,000 citizens from these countries are estimated to have come to Britain, but many have returned home over the past few years. Britain was one of only a few countries to open up its labour market fully to new members, but the government restricted access to benefits until after a year in full-time work. Some media reports had in the past focussed on the alleged burden the migrants were placing on the public purse through schooling, health care and other provisions.
