There is a thriving shadow economy in Britain, but immigrants are not to blame Emily Kenway
AAccording to politicians of all parties, the so-called “hidden economy” – that is, the murky aspects of the labor market, where work takes place unregulated and undeclared to the authorities – is a “hidden economy”.to threaten“Full of immigrants working illegally.”Undermines British workers“, and even A A threat to our national security. MPs were so concerned about asylum seekers having their pizzas delivered on a Friday night that they spent parliamentary time discussing the business models of Deliveroo and others. In response, the Government repeatedly reassured us, somewhat in the Mills & Boon style used by Yvette Cooper, when she was Home Secretary, that “Enforcement escalates“to address the problem.
Proposed solutions include Keir Starmer’s digital ID cards, requirements To increase “right to work” checks, and New data sharing agreements The Ministry of Interior gives delivery companies the addresses of asylum hotels to try to prevent asylum seekers from working. All of these measures aim to prevent migrants from earning money if they lack the legal right to work, which indicates that the government believes that these migrants are the main problem in the underground economy.
But government research on the issue suggests something entirely different. Reports in 2011, 2017 and 2023 It presented the realities of the UK’s underground economy, i.e. working in legal sectors but people failing to register for regulatory or tax purposes (rather than illicit activities, such as drug dealing and sex work, which are fully or partially criminalised). According to the latest estimates, about 8.8% of our adult population works under the table; That’s nearly 4.4 million people. there 700,000 to 900,000 illegal immigrants In the United Kingdom with no right to work and more 224 thousand asylum seekers are waiting for the decisionMany of them will also be prevented from earning. Even if all of these immigrants are working illegally, they constitute a small minority of hidden economic activity. Furthermore, the research found no statistically significant difference in the proportions of workers across urban versus rural areas, nor different geographic regions, despite significant differences in immigrant populations. conclusion? The hidden economy is not an immigrant problem.
Instead, it is an economic problem. To meet their needs. Of getting. From paying our ever-increasing bloody bills. Because the majority of people work off the books Living in the most deprived areas of the UK. They too Most likely to be a young man (ages 18-24), with participation declining with age, and earning very little, with 50% of activities generating less than £250 each time. They are often “workers,” meaning that their hidden labor supplements other officially declared earnings; It’s extra income in a high-cost economy.
Take Dennis, who is now a fully qualified electrician. He worked for cash during his training, because his income was very low. “By the time I’m done [paying living costs such as food and rent]”I didn’t have anything left. We used to make some cash, which helped me get by,” he says. For reference, the current apprenticeship wage It is £7.55 per hourwell below the minimum wage. His story is one of several featured in Research by Danny Buckley from Loughborough Business School. They found that undeclared work was normal for people in the early years of their careers, such as car mechanic, hairdresser, plumber, painter and decorator, tree surgeon, heating engineer, and electrician like Dennis.
These are the workers, but there are also the customers to consider, and that’s where you and I come in. The same research has identified customers as the driving force behind the underground economy. Ethan, a heating engineer, told the researchers: “You feel pressure from customers, which drives all prices down.” […] The only way I can continue to keep costs down is to either use cheaper materials, not pay for everything, or hire casual people. Andrew and Carl, both mechanics who run garages, described customers requesting a ‘loss of VAT’. It seems pretty obvious when you start seeing the underground economy this way, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want a quote from a builder or auto mechanic to be lower? And if it is He is Low, who’s sure why, rather than feeling relieved that things just got a little easier?
This mundane picture of an economy made up of ordinary people trying to increase their incomes or lower their bills is a far cry from the misleading images painted by politicians. Instead of privileged apprentices and exhausted families, we heard recurring concerns about a very specific type of business: high street shops and services run by immigrants. Or, as our Democratic representatives put it, “fake barber shops” and “fake vape shops.”
Now, I’m not suggesting that all of these actions are always legitimate. But the National Center for Social Research found that “the activities most likely to be in the underground economy are… Not necessarily “The most common activities in the underground economy.” In plain terms, there are some companies where violating the law is very common. But they do not constitute the bulk of the underground economy, which already occurs across a wide range of sectors. General home maintenance was the service They are more likely to be purchased from the underground economy.
However, highlighting these companies specifically is such a hot trend at Westminster that you’d think some kind of anti-PR firm was making a promotional push. And of course it is. It is reform in the UK. But the Labor Party is desperately trying to maintain its share of the electorate by imitating the reform style and its penchant for ill-considered policies. Eighteen months ago, Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, made headlines by asserting the elusiveness of “politics”.Turkish barbersA year later, Labor/Co-operative MP Paul Waugh It came in Parliament “Honest business is being undermined by the threat of illegal operation, especially by illegal immigrants from Iran and Iraq in fake barber shops and fake vaping shops.”
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If you buy what they are selling, thinking that the underground economy is populated by immigrants working illegally, you may support ID cards and the other measures mentioned above. You may be pleased to see the Home Secretary’s recent press release talking about “The biggest crackdown on illegal workers since records began“But as we have seen, lawbreaking business is hardly about illegal immigrants at all. Policies that pretend otherwise have more in common with snake oil sold on social media than a better British economy.