Migrant maths

Peter Jones has yet again ­returned to the issue of ­immigrants and that the UK and Scotland should be taking in a share of the refugees from war-torn countries. (Perspective, 14 July).

Mr Jones is either naive or delusional when he says migrants would make a positive contribution to the economy. According to MigrationWatch UK – a respected organisation, but described by Mr Jones as “a largely anti-immigrant pressure group” – an immigrant with a wife and two children on the minimum wage would receive £294.97 more in benefits every week than he paid in taxes.

Mr Jones’s comments that we need immigrants to pay for our state pensions is totally wrong. The House of Lords economic affairs committee and the Turner Review decisively dismissed these sentiments some time ago. And in 2004 the UN World Economic and Social Survey said: “Incoming migration would have to expand at virtually impossible rates to offset declining support ratios, that is, workers per retirees.”

Clark Cross

Springfield Road

Linlithgow