Britain's immigrant population contributes relatively more to the public purse than their UK-born counterparts by paying a significant 10.2 per cent of all the income tax collected in the country, a new study published on Wednesday said.
The Institute for Public Policy Research shows total revenue from immigrants grew in real terms from £33.8 billion in 1999-00 to £41.2 billion in 2003-04.
This 22 per cent increase compares to a 6 per cent increase for the UK-born.
The calculations, using Treasury data and the Labour Force Survey, show that although the migrant workforce makes up 8.7 per cent of the population, it contributes 10.2 per cent of all the income tax collected.
The study reports that this proportion is likely to grow in the future.
Migrants also earn about 15 per cent more a week on average than their British-born counterparts, reflecting not only that many migrants are in highly skilled, high paid jobs but that even those in low skill, low wage jobs, work long hours and pay significant amount of tax.
A migrant is defined as someone who is born outside the UK but is a resident of the country.
The study found that foreign-born workers earned on an average £405.83 a week, compared with £355.06 a week for everyone else.
According to the study, each immigrant generated £7,203 in government revenue on average in 2003-04, compared with £6,861 for non-migrant workers and each migrant cost the country £7,277 in government spending last year compared with £7,753 per non-migrant.
Nick Pearce, director of IPPR, an independent think-tank, said: "Our research shows that immigrants make an important fiscal contribution to the UK and pay more than their share. They are not a drain on the UK's resources."
The authors say the 122,770 people who signed up to the Home Office's workers registration scheme after the accession of eastern European countries to the EU last May contributed 240 million pounds to the economy in the eight months to December.
As 40 per cent were already in the country illegally before May 2004, registration is likely to have led to bigger revenues as they now have to pay tax and national insurance.
British home secretary Charles Clarke, speaking on BBC2's Newsnight said that he would consider allowing failed asylum seekers to work legally where they could not be returned to their country of origin.
