Better Than That

Azimo reports on the reality behind the myth of modern-day migration in the UK.

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Better Than That

Better Than That Commissioned as part of Azimo’s #BetterThanThat campaign, our groundbreaking migration survey offers a fascinating insight into how migrants are helping to put the ‘Great’ into Great Britain. The vast majority of migrants come to the UK to work hard and get on. Fact. But with the Brexit vote coming up, the gap between public perception of immigration and actual reality is growing wider each day. So, to help redress the balance, Azimo commissioned an independent survey to debunk a few myths about migrants in 21stcentury Britain.  As a company built by migrants for migrants, Azimo champions the crucial contribution these people make to the wellbeing of their families and friends back home. By maximising the power of money transfer as a force for good, our aim is, and has always been, to help our hardworking customers create a better life for themselves and the world around them.

There’s no question that UK immigration has increased rapidly during the last 20 years and a great deal of that growth has come from an influx from the EU. Between 1995 and 2015, the number of EU migrants living in Britain more than tripled from 0.9 million to 3.3 million, and they now make up more than 5% of the UK population.  But there’s also no question that this immigration has helped to fuel innovation and growth, and that Europe is a much better place when people are united rather than being kept apart. Once you’ve read the results of our survey, we think you’ll agree.

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Better Than That

Positive Migration Azimo’s Better Than That campaign was established to reverse the negativity surrounding immigration and turn ‘migrant’ into a label to be proud of. By promoting their achievements and celebrating their successes, our aim is to drown out the anti-migrant headlines and change people’s perceptions across the UK and beyond – because, let’s face it, we’re all better than that.

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Better Than That

Myth

Migrants are only fit for low-paid, menial jobs

69%

of migrants in the UK are in education or employment

Reality

Migrants start one in seven UK firms and earn more than the UK national average More than half of the UK-born respondents in our survey estimated that less than one in ten British businesses were started by migrants. But according to independent think-tank the Centre for Entrepreneurs, 464,527 UK companies have been founded or co-founded by migrant entrepreneurs. Add these together and they make up one in seven of all UK firms, employing at least 1.16 million people. Tech companies are at the forefront here: Azimo, one of the fastest-growing FinTech firms in Europe,

was co-founded by Polish migrant Marta Krupinska, and migrants are also behind the likes of Citymapper, YPlan and Farfetch, to name a few. When they were asked to estimate the salary of a migrant living and working here, 72% of UK-born respondents in our survey thought they earned less than the national average. In fact, thosemigrants we asked confirmed the figure to be £28,500 – which is actually £1,000 above the UK average.

The average migrant earns just under £28,500, which is a little over the national UK average salary

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Better Than That

Myth

Migrants are only here for the benefits Reality

Less than 2% of migrants claim benefits When asked to describe their employment status, 63% of the migrants we surveyed said they’re currently in full- or part-time work, with 60% of men in full-time work and 40% of women in full-time work. For EU migrants, this figure rises even further – to nearly 80%. And contrary to popular belief (and frequent mass media hysteria), just 1.6% of those migrants surveyed said that they receive benefits.

In reality, EU migrants are far from a drain on the UK’s finances. Research conducted by University College London shows that, during the 2013-14 tax year, they contributed £2.5 billion more in tax and National Insurance than they pocketed in tax credits and child benefits. Migrants are fuelling the UK’s economic growth, rather than stalling it.

2%

of migrants claim benefits

63%

of migrants in fullor part-time work

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Better Than That

Myth

Migrants are stealing all the jobs Reality

UK unemployment is at its lowest for a decade With a record 31.6 million people in work at the end of January 2016, unemployment edging downwards and wages rising at 2.1 per cent, the indication is that immigration has, if anything, had a positive effect on the UK job market. While it increases the number of people looking for jobs, it also increases the number of people consuming local services and goods, which in turn creates new employment opportunities. Despite this, nearly one fifth of UKborn respondents in our survey felt they had lost out on a job to a migrant – 7.5% believed it had happened once, but 11.5% believed it had happened a number of times. This statistic is based more on feelings than hard facts, of course, but the

conclusion is clear: migrants arriving in the UK are often better qualified than the UK-born labour force. As a result, a significant minority of UK workers feel under serious threat, whether real or perceived, when it comes to direct competition in the workplace.  UK-born respondents were also asked to estimate the number of migrants employed in the UK. The answers ranged from 1-2 million (31.3%) to 10 million (10%) to a staggering 18-20 million (5.5% of UK-born Londoners ticked this option in the survey) – that’s nearly a third of the entire UK population. Such wide-ranging figures show once again just how skewed homegrown perceptions can be when it comes to migrants.

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Better Than That

Myth

Migrants are poorly educated Reality

More than half of migrants are graduates Of the migrants surveyed, 55% were already graduates when they arrived in the UK – the comparable figure for UK-born graduates is 42%. In addition, nearly 20% had completed a Masters degree. This impressive figure rose even further among 25-34 year olds – nearly a third of migrants surveyed in this age bracket had a Masters under their belt before they arrived here.

Of course, this is good news for GB inc, which is managing to attract a high number of university-educated migrants to fill roles in industries such as finance, technology and healthcare. It’s estimated that 30 per cent of doctors and 40 per cent of nurses working in the UK health service were born abroad, while 77% of Azimo’s London workforce was born abroad.

55% of migrants

have some form of higher education

19.2% of

migrants in the UK have a Masters degree

55% 19.2%

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Better Than That

Myth

Migrants are pushing up the crime rate Reality

The real crime is the abuse migrants have to suffer Despite the doom-laden predictions of a wave of crime when the UK first opened its doors to EU migrants, a recent LSE report found that crime actually fell significantly in areas that had experienced mass immigration from eastern Europe, with rates of burglary, vandalism and car theft going down since 2004. The research project concluded that there was ‘no causal impact of immigration on crime’.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of attitudes towards migrants living in the UK. One in three of the migrants we surveyed had suffered verbal abuse while living in the UK, and that figure rose to 41% among 16-24 year olds. Even more disturbingly, 24% of those who’d suffered abuse said that it had happened at least 10 times.

#*@&! 1 in 3

migrants have been verbally abused for being a migrant

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Better Than That

Myth

29% migrants

Migrants can’t speak ‘the language’

speak 3 or more languages, compared to

Reality

UK born

4%

46% of migrants speak two languages fluently The Leave campaign has started to talk of introducing an Australian-style points system for immigration if they win the Brexit vote. As a result, new migrants could find themselves excluded from the UK for poor language skills. But according to the results of our survey, languages are one area where migrants definitely don’t struggle. Of the 1,000 migrants

we questioned, 46% spoke two languages fluently, more than a fifth (29%) spoke three languages fluently, and four per cent of 16-24 year olds spoke five languages fluently. Compare that with the UK-born consumers we surveyed and the results are startling: 72% spoke just one language fluently. And as for five languages? A measly 0.7%.

Migrants

UK born

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Better Than That

Myth

Brits are against the idea of migration Reality

50% of Brits would move abroad to help their family financially When we asked our UK-born respondents whether they’d consider moving to another country to help their family financially, the results were hugely encouraging: 50% replied that they would and that figure jumped to an overwhelming 63% among 16-34 year olds. In fact, many Brits already are migrants: according to the UN, Britain has the tenth highest diaspora population in the world, sandwiched between Syria and Afghanistan. Wherever they’re living, let’s just hope they can speak the language.

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Better Than That

Myth

Changing perceptions is impossible Reality

Azimo already is… In addition to this report, Azimo has also put together a powerful short video to highlight some of the shocking remarks aimed at migrants in the UK. It features migrants and Brits reading tweets and online comments. It can be viewed at azimo.com/betterthanthat. Fear and scaremongering about immigration is causing real problems in our society. At Azimo, we see the need to welcome people from all backgrounds and value the skills they bring. We employ more than 90 people across the EU, and they’re a wonderfully diverse mix of talent – at last count there were 21 different nationalities and 25 languages between our two offices. 

That diversity helps us to understand the different cultures and backgrounds we deal with everyday, as well as keeping us grounded as a team. Please help us to share our story and make Britain a better place to live for everyone by using the hashtag #BetterThanThat.

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Better Than That

About Azimo Azimo is a low-cost, digital money transfer service that was launched in October 2012 with the explicit mission to cut the cost of sending money around the world. Making transfers faster, easier, simpler and cheaper means that more money reaches the people, families and communities that need it. Azimo allows customers to transfer money on the web or via its apps to more than 190 countries in over 80 different currencies. The company has half a million customers connected to its platform and can reach up to five billion people through its network. For obvious reasons, most of Azimo’s customers are migrants.

About the survey The survey was carried out by Censuswide on behalf of Azimo. For the purposes of this report, Censuswide surveyed a total of 2,014 UK-born consumers and 1,002 migrants living in the UK.