Mass migration increases GDP. But is it a financial benefit for the people already living in the country? By Elizabeth Nickson at Absurdistan (who was European Bureau Chief of LIFE magazine, and wrote for Harper’s Magazine, the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent, the Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Times Magazine, the Telegraph, the Globe and Mail and the National Post).
Governments and banks reckon that any migration is a net financial benefit, because the immigrants must be fed and housed, which adds to GDP:
The migration storm that hit us post Covid? … Migration is calculated to be a net positive in the balance sheet of every country. They pay some tax, they contribute to GDP. Therefore numbers are guestimated and added to GDP.
Because migration is believed and is calculated to be a net positive in the balance sheet of every country. … The central banks, hedgies and funds “believe” it and besides, they love lowering labor costs.
Hmmm. Really?
Countries need billions of new dollars to pay for migrants. So when a country is catastrophically broke, like Spain this summer, bang! a hundred thousand new migrants and the economy can stumble forward by borrowing money allowed by the E...