Taxpayer-Funded OECD Demands Preferential Treatment for Immigrants

The taxpayer-funded Organization for Economic Development (OECD) has demanded that the government do more to “protect migrants during the economic recession” by employing more in the public sector, and by implementing lower taxes and subsidies to low skilled jobs which migrants most often fill.

The OECD, which receives funding of £25 million a year from British taxpayers, has also demanded increased rights for migrants living here because of the recession.

The OECD said that in tougher economic times migrants tended to fare less well, noting that they were often employed in less stable, more cyclical sectors such as construction.

“The economic downturn makes it all the more urgent to take care of immigrants … because experience shows that they are the most vulnerable in times of economic crisis,” Martine Durand, from the OECD, told a news conference.

She said the number of would-be migrants was unlikely to go down because the situation in their home countries would also be very tough, and added:

A lower level of education, the tax system and poor recognition of qualifications all hampered migrants’ access to labour markets, according to the study, based on data from France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Belgium.

“In all four countries and for both genders, the unemployment rate of immigrants is significantly higher than that of the native-born,” said the OECD, adding that this was the case in most of its 30 member countries.

In 2007, the unemployment rate among foreign-born men totalled 15.8 percent in Belgium compared with 5.5 percent for native-born men. For France the figures were 11.9 percent against 7.2 percent and in the Netherlands the numbers were 7.5 percent and 2.7 percent.

Unemployment among foreign-born women was even higher, while children of migrants were also disproportionately likely to be out of work despite having gone through the local education system, the study showed.

*The OECD was formed in 1961 as an expansion of the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). The OECD now includes as member states Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, and the United States.