The facts about the effects of migration on the UK economy, wages and employment are often distorted, difficult to understand or poorly explained. Government research from 2014 suggests that immigration actually has very limited impact on levels of employment, while a wide-ranging study by the Oxford University-based Migration Observatory showed that a 1% rise in immigration depressed wages by only 0.3%. Looked at over a longer timescale, immigration actually boosted wages.
The research did point out, however, that the benefits were not spread across all income groups and that those at the bottom tended to suffer.
“The greatest wage effects are found for low-waged workers. Each 1% increase in the share of migrants in the UK-born working-age population leads to a 0.6% decline in the wages of the 5% lowest-paid workers and to an increase in the wages of higher paid workers.” Crucially, migrants are far less likely to claim benefits than native Britons (although EU migrants are marginally more likely to claim than their non-EU counterparts).