Center for Immigration Studies — In the new BBC documentary “The Truth About Immigration”, journalist Nick Robinson interviews an economist who, during the economic boom years at the start of the millennium, was instrumental in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to adopt an expansive immigration policy.
The economist, Jonathan Portes, tells Robinson that the idea was to bring in new workers who would fill skill gaps and allow “growth to carry on at a faster clip than it otherwise would have.”
Then Robinson gently prods Portes to acknowledge another agenda of the British elites. He asks, “Was there not also something where business, the treasury, the Bank of England, were worried that inflation would take off when growth was high, and immigration was a way of keeping the lid on wages?”
Answers Portes, rather blandly, “I’m sure the treasury viewed immigration as potentially helpful in dampening wage growth.”
“And big business?” Robinson asks. “And big business,” Portes acknowledges.
“And the Bank of England?” asks Robinson. “And the Bank of England,” says Portes.
That’s quite a line-up of the British economic power structure. They certainly got the immigration policy they wanted…. [Read More]
