EU Referendum questions: Migrant benefits
Cambridge Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) Podcast
Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
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🗓️ 17 June 2016
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
In this ongoing series of short recordings, academics from the University of Cambridge and beyond shed light on the key issues to be considered in the run up to the upcoming referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.
This interview features Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor of European Union Law, sharing her experiences of researching the reasons why EU migrants move to the UK, and the extent to which the benefits available factor into that decision. She then considers the effects of the concessions won by David Cameron should the UK vote to remain on 23rd June.
This series has been created by the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS). For more information visit http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So my name is Catherine Barnard. I'm Professor in EU Law and also Senior Fellow in the UK and a Changing Europe programme. |
| 0:14.0 | And I want to talk a bit today about migration benefits. And we know from the press that the real concern in some quarters is that |
| 0:24.6 | migrants come here simply to claim benefits. And I want to talk a bit about the research that I've |
| 0:30.1 | been doing with Dr. Amy Ludlow, which has been looking at why migrants come to the United Kingdom. |
| 0:36.0 | But before I do that, I just want to say a word or two about the legal framework |
| 0:40.3 | in which they come and which gives them entitlements. |
| 0:44.3 | So, EU migrants, nationals of member states, of other countries in the European Union, |
| 0:50.3 | have got the right to come to the United Kingdom, to work, to seek work, to |
| 0:57.0 | work as self-employed persons, and also to provide services. And all of that's laid down by the |
| 1:04.4 | treaty. And the treaty also enables them not only to work, but to reside here while they are working. |
| 1:13.6 | And also crucially to be treated equally with nationals in respect of the terms and conditions of employment, |
| 1:22.6 | but also in respect of what's called social advantages and tax advantages and that can include benefits. |
| 1:30.3 | Now that's one of the reasons why Polish migrant workers can claim tax credits on the same term as nationals. |
| 1:39.3 | If you are low paid and you've got family responsibilities, then your pay can be supplemented by tax credits |
| 1:47.4 | and they must be paid on the same terms as for national domestic workers. The question is, |
| 1:55.2 | are migrants coming here for benefits? Let's look at some figures. First point is that last year about |
| 2:03.6 | 270,000 EU migrants came to the United Kingdom. Now that it actually is a smaller number |
| 2:13.6 | than the number of non-EU migrants. So migrants coming from Pakistan or Australia or Canada, |
| 2:21.8 | the figure there was about 277,000. Why have they all come? Well, if you look at the chart, you will see |
| 2:31.3 | that in the case of EU migrants, about 40% come for work, they've already got jobs, |
| 2:38.8 | and another 30% or so come to look for work. The numbers are much smaller for non-EU migrants |
| 2:47.5 | who are coming to the UK. And of course, in respect of non-EU migrants coming to the UK, |
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