GETTY The workers effected are the lowest paid

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The influx of EU migrants can lead to pay reductions of nearly two per cent in some industries including catering, hotels and elderly care, the research showed. Campaigners last night seized on the document as official confirmation that EU migration is undermining the living standards of the UK’s least paid workers. Lord Green of Deddington, the chairman of the pressure group Migration Watch, said: “For many years the immigration lobby have claimed that there is no evidence that immigration has any significant effect on the wages of British workers.

GETTY Industries where negatives effects were felt the most include catering and hospitality

“This new research by the Bank of England blows their claims out of the water. It has found a significant negative impact on those in the lower skilled services sector in which six million UK born are working. This amounts to nearly a quarter of all British workers.”

This level of migration is compressing the low-skilled jobs sector Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe

Ukip MEP and migration spokesman Steven Woolfe said: “We must start to discuss and fully understand the impact, directly and indirectly, that mass migration has on our economy and jobs sector. “Net migration at over 300,000 per year is preventing wages rising in line with inflation for native, British workers. “With wages being compressed, this impacts the disposable incomes of many low skilled workers, which in effect, hinders our economy on a local and national scale.

GETTY Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe

“This level of migration is compressing the low skilled jobs sector which is bloated to bursting point.” The Bank of England report, entitled “The Impact of Immigration on Occupational Wages”, was written by Oxford academic Stephen Nickell, who is a member of the Office for Budget Responsibility, and Bank of England economist Jumana Saleheen. They argued that the impact on wages was “small” in terms of the overall UK economy but was also “statistically significant”. “The biggest effect is in the semi/unskilled services sector, where a 10 percentage point rise in the proportion of immigrants is associated with a two per cent reduction in pay,” the authors wrote.

GETTY The report was released by the Bank of England

Examining a series of sectors of the economy, the authors found varying levels of impact on wages resulting from the influx of migrant labour. The report noted that “results suggest that the statistically significant negative effects of immigration on wages are concentrated among skilled production workers, and semi/unskilled service workers.” The report noted: “A 10 percentage point rise in the proportion of immigrants working in semi/unskilled services — that is, in care homes, bars, shops, restaurants, cleaning, for example — leads to a 1.88 per cent reduction in pay.” The authors noted that previously there had been much anecdotal evidence of migration reducing wages but little statistical data confirming the case. “The stereotype of the Polish plumber — used widely as a symbol of cheap labour — encapsulates the commonly held belief that immigration in Britain has pushed down wages in the most affected jobs,” the report said. Previous research had suggested “the share of immigrants in the workforce has had little or no impact on the pay rates of the indigenous population” yet the authors investigations found there was an impact.

GETTY Theresa May was criticised after her remarks

Whether migrants had arrived from other EU nations or outside the EU did not appear to affect the impact on wages, the report said. “Where immigrants come from — EU or non-EU — appears to have no impact on our economy wide results; with the impact within the semi/unskilled services sector being small,” the report said. But it also noted that the overwhelming majority of new arrivals over recent years had been from within the EU. “Immigrants in recent years are most predominant in low-skill occupations, with a significant presence amongst high-skilled occupations as well. “And while the immigrant-native share has continued to increase in all occupations since the mid-1990s, in recent years the rise has been greatest in low-skill occupations.

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