Following an extraordinary incident in northern Africa, fears that the European economy may be impacted highlight how economics and immigration interact.
As nearly 80,000 immigrants entered the Spanish-controlled North African town of Ceuta from Morocco, EU member states suspended the free-travel Schengen arrangements.
Economic hardships were also factors for many crossed the border in hopes of improved living conditions, while a Schengen suspension could affect the flow of European goods and services.
On Taking Stock, Jonathan Portes, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King’s College London, said that the Ceuta crisis was “political provocation” rather than a case of economic migration.
He asserted that the “vast majority” of those who crossed the Spanish-Moroccan border were not typical economic migrants from southern or western Africa who wanted to enter Spain to work.
Instead, Prof. Portes believed that this was a deliberate political decision by Moroccan authorities to remove border controls “possibly encouraged” by the United States.
He noted that Morocco had “done this before,” citing an example from 2021 when Morocco loosened border controls, with 8,000 entering Ceuta after Spain treated a pro-independence Western Sahara leader for Covid-19.
“Stable and economically positive equilibrium” on immigration not yet reached.
On UK migration post-Brexit, Prof. Portes said that net immigration into the UK was high after the Covid-19 pandemic as the country experienced “severe labour shortages.”
As the Labour government attempted to reduce access to economic migrants, encouraging the nearly-1 million unemployed youths into work, Prof. Portes said ideas that restricting migration access would create more available jobs are “misplaced.”
He suggested that the relationship is “more complicated than this sort of simple equation,” with migrants both improving the overall economy and removing available jobs.
He asserted that immigration has a positive impact on the UK economy for growth and increased tax revenues, but that a “stable and economically positive equilibrium” has yet to be reached.
