Have migrants improved the UK's public services more than they have strained them?
Migrants comprise around one in five NHS staff in England, with non-UK nationals making up 36% of doctors and 30% of nurses. Fiscal analyses show skilled workers and health/care visa holders often make a net positive lifetime contribution while care workers, their dependants and some family routes generate net costs. Recent net migration has fallen sharply to around 170,000 in the year to December 2025 but high inflows from 2021-2023 added demand to housing, education and health without matching infrastructure investment.
29 Opinions
Legal migrants contribute a huge amount, in doctors, nurses, cleaners, GPS. These people work there way up to these positions and are clearly qualified to do this. Controlled legal migration is required to maintain these services. And to be honest likes of the NHS still need more support in this way. Regards taking up housing these people earn a living in vital services so that on this should be accepted.
Every job that a migrant does could easily be done by a native of the country. This would remove language barriers and bring people into employment reducing the social security wage bill.
The question seems framed to imply that NHS staff from migrant backgrounds would make a greater contribution to the UK than their british colleagues. The answer is no. Poor planning in the NHS created the need for agency staff and an unsustainable wage bill.
Obviously not since 2022 and the social care visa debacle
YES Without doubt over the years migrants have made a massive difference to our country. They've done the jobs our own won't do, they've done the jobs we didn't have the manpower to do, the come & helped our country when it's needed help the most. In fact our history tells us, there's times in the past that without migrant workers working, GB plc would have ground to a halt
We have the capacity and capability to train our own, we need to support young people to train for these positions . Money funnelled into internment camps suggests few of the men crossing have any viable contributions to make but they cost us millions - and we have to fund their prison sentences as well. This money could be used to pay grants to people training for shortage services - and to improve the pay for care workers and other low paid but valuable work.
To those who say: "The NHS would collapse without migration", I say - That hiring decision is a choice based on short term cost saving. It's neither necessary, nor good for our doctors and nurses, or overseas countries deprived of their doctors and nurses, or patients. Same applies to the care industry. We are exploiting people.
Professional migrants do contribute far more than they consume. Look around any hospital and many of the janitorial tasks are performed by non-whites and you are as likely to be seen by a coloured doctor as a white one. Having said that, too many black and asian young people are attracted to crime, violence and a disinclination to perform paid work.
I'm disabled and honestly I can't tell you how often I have to explain myself to NHS staff due to them not speaking good English. Either they don't understand me but tell me yes yes yes whilst totally getting the wrong end of the stick or I don't understand them and have to try and get them to explain things to me several times or just give up. When it comes to life saving services I think it's downright dangerous to have huge language barriers in a health environment
The whole outlook is wrong, we shouldn't focus on getting the service working, we should work on getting the services working for the British. If we lack Doctors, for example, then the short term solution is to import, the long term solution is to create academies/schools to fill the need we lack as a nation. One or the other won't work, we'd need a short term of import whilst we train our own for long term.