How do we judge whether migration policy is improving the quality of life for existing residents? One thing to consider is that migration means that the UK’s capital stock is divided between more people. Migrants may bring skills and their ability to work but they cannot bring a mile of motorway, a large piece of industrial machinery, a house or a GP surgery.
Across the world there is a strong correlation between the capital stock per worker and output per worker. In a super-productive, capital-intense Britain, drudge work would be automated and people freed up to get paid more by doing those things that only people can do. But the nature of these capital stocks is that they grow only slowly. In an ideal world
