Eurosceptic calls to quit the EU over immigration don’t give a true reflection of how immigration benefits Britain’s economy and public services. That is BNE's response to the latest section of Change or Go, a report by anti-European group Business for Britain. 

It is certainly novel to see a business group promoting policies which will directly damage British business. As this report admits, recent studies have shown “a net economic benefit from EEA migration.” British businesses – most recently the housebuilder Crest Nicholson and the recruitment company Manpower – are solidly in favour of the free movement of workers in order to fill UK labour shortages. No visa system would be as effective in doing this as the EU’s free movement of people.

As Business for Britain’s report makes clear, leaving the EU would not automatically mean we could close our borders. In order to continue to be part of the world’s largest market, we would need to accept free movement of people. Norway and Switzerland both have to accept EU migrants in order to continue their membership of the single market. Leaving the Single Market in order to marginally reduce net migration would be an appalling trade-off.

It is right that migrants should not take advantage of the welfare state, which is why the Prime Minister is pushing for reform to tighten up the rules. As our paper last year this is highly possible by working primarily through domestic policy.

There is also no guarantee or certainty over what would happen to the two million Britons who live in the rest of the EU. While the Vienna convention might protect current expats, those who wished to emigrate in future could face terrible difficulty – including those who want to be reunited with family members who already leave the EU. It also requires a very broad interpretation of the Convention to assume that all legislative acts of the expats’ home state would be continued after a Brexit. They could lose various benefits and face a harder standard of living.

It is encouraging to see Business for Britain coming down off the fence they have occupied for so long. Like yesterday’s instalment on foreign policy, their report on immigration explicitly advocates leaving the EU, without a word about renegotiation. It is now clear that Business for Britain, far from supporting David Cameron’s renegotiation agenda on migrant benefits, are set on taking Britain out of the EU.

-          Business for Britain’s chapter on immigration is published here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/11698869/Immigration-Britain-can-only-control-who-comes-in-if-we-leave-the-EU.html

-          Their chapter on British expats is here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/11698875/Emigration-Why-British-expats-have-nothing-to-fear-from-Brexit.html

-          BNE’s 2014 paper on EU migration is here: http://www.businessforneweurope.org/managing_migration_a_practical_approach