---

Points-Based Immigration System

I would not like to move on from the House of Lords report without our dealing with the matter that the hon. Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Clappison) raised. The report does conclude, in paragraph 69, that"““we found no systematic empirical evidence to suggest that net immigration creates significant dynamic benefits for the resident population in the UK.””" However, further on, the report mentions the macro-economic impact—perhaps the connection was not realised. It cites Professor Steve Nickell as saying that immigration may reduce the equilibrium rate of unemployment"““if, for example, immigrant workers are more flexible and reduce the extent of skill mismatch, are more elastic suppliers of labour with higher levels of motivation and reliability…This effect may, however, decrease over very long periods of time as migrants become more like the native population””." It seems to me that the report contains a lot of sensible material, but has not absorbed the key aspect of the dynamic potential benefits. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman underestimates that.