Liberal dilemma #192

El Garundon leads its website ( currently) with a recommendation that any new immigration policy for the UK should not prioritise EU workers. The argument seems quite reasonable: 

the problem with free movement from the European Union was that “it leaves migration to the UK solely up to migrants and UK residents have no control over the level and mix of migration”. But he also concludes that free movement is not guaranteed to cause problems [either] because “that likely depends on the level and mix of the migration flows that result”.

The emerging liberal dilemma is easy to see in this rather vacillatory point. For Graun readers, it must be tricky. They want 'free' movement to continue from the EU and know that remaining would necesarily involve such movement, but here is someone saying that the economic benefit is not so clear. 

The report also moderates [sic] the usual rather narrow views about the net benefeits or costs of migration, usually calculated by setting net congtributions via tax and NI to net benefits drawn from the State and simply ignoring the complaints from many Brits who also want to consider pressures on schools, housing or the NHS. Aparently,  'there has a been small impact on wages and employment in the UK, [and]...it has had “neither the large negative effects claimed by some, nor the benefits claimed by others”...because “the biggest gainers from migration are often the migrants themselves”') Here, a wider notion of economic benefit is being advanced, one that turns on the best way to achieve some sort of meritocracy.

Guardina reades can at least comfort themselves in that the Report attacks the Government: 'this report shows beyond doubt that the government’s economically illiterate net migration target should finally be put out of its misery. After Brexit, we will need immigration – for growth, productivity, and not least to help the public finances – more than ever.”'.Economic illiteracy might have led to thet arbitrary targets,but the general need toregulate immigration remains. 

Overall, though, so does the dilemma remain -- to favour EU migrants in order to Remain or allow (even welcome) migrants from other areas on an equal footing (surely the EC should uphold this equality as one of the 4 Freedoms -- but I forgot the freedoms only apply to the EU countries).

Meanwhile, the Graun does not mention an interesting story that appeared again in the Times, presumably because it risks making the EC look megalomaniac or foolish (see blog above) .