Skilled migrant workers add £54bn to UK economy

Professional and managerial workers from overseas contribute £54.3bn a year to the UK economy, research out today reveals.

The study, by professional services firm Harvey Nash and the Centre for Economic and Business Research, clearly shows that the UK is now heavily dependent on its migrants.

The massive figure comes in terms of additional value contributed to the economy. The benefits of inward migration extend not only to plugging skills gaps, but also by the value added by migrants spending their cash in the UK on consumer items - known as the "multiplier effect".

Albert Ellis, chief executive of Harvey Nash, said: "Economic migration has many detractors, but clearly what we are seeing here is unquestionably positive and beneficial to the UK as a whole. In fact, the UK could not do without its influx of economic migrants."

He said many sectors, such as the NHS, would cease to operate effectively without the help of migrant workers.

"The NHS takes many thousands of migrants as workers - more than 30% of NHS nursing roles are held by recent migrants to the UK. So the effect we are seeing is not a temporary blip - the UK is vastly dependent on its migrants to sustain its steady economic growth and will be for the foreseeable future."