The Hidden Incentives Behind Immigration

 

The conversation about immigration usually centres on culture or compassion, but the real issue lies in incentives. We hear endless debates about preserving national identity or extending humanity to those in need. Yet beneath it all, there’s a straightforward economic dynamic at play that rarely, if ever, gets the spotlight it deserves.

Businesses and asset holders tend to benefit from higher immigration levels. A larger labour pool eases wage pressure for employers, making it simpler to control costs. A growing population also supports higher rents, lifts property values, and increases demand for credit and services. That’s basic economics, and it’s the wealthy elites, landlords and executives who reap the rewards. They expand their property portfolios and operations and watch their investments rise with little extra effort.

What often gets missed is how many of those groups secured their position in the first place. It wasn’t purely as a result of free markets; government 'policy' played a central role. Policies that were lobbied for by many of the execs and landlords now profiting from them. For decades, central banks have kept interest rates artificially low. Cheap credit turned property and asset speculation into a far more lucrative path than productive work. If you had access to borrowing and had the knowledge of how to leverage it, you could grow your money faster than the economy was growing. If you didn’t, you were priced out entirely.

We’ve ended up with a system that effectively subsidises asset ownership for elites, landlords and property owners. Their wealth has compounded ahead of ordinary earners, and now population growth helps cement those gains for bosses and the well-off. This isn’t a grand conspiracy; it’s a predictable consequence of monetary policy and political incentives. Low rates widened the wealth gap, and immigration policies help keep it locked in place.

Here’s the really evident bit of the whole charade that's playing out in full view of those with a starring role but are apparently blind to what's infront of them: large sections of the public have been swept up by progressive rhetoric about compassion and open borders, unwittingly reinforcing the very system that enriches the elite. The beneficiaries pocket the profits, enjoy comfortable lives, and secure gold plated pensions for themselves, while the rest of us get to absorb the social and economic pressures that come with rapid demographic change. Those pressures include strained public services, shifting community dynamics, and integration challenges that politicians have no real interest in addressing. Meanwhile, the loudest advocates get to signal their moral superiority and silence dissent, blind to how they’re advancing the interests of the same class they claim to oppose.

The point isn't to blame migrants. Anyone would move for a better life if given the chance. The real question is this, should government policy continue prioritising asset inflation for those who already own assets, or should it focus on affordability and stability for those who don’t? That’s the choice at the heart of the matter.

Until we confront that question directly, everything else is just noise. We can argue about culture and compassion until we’re blue in the face, but without tackling the underlying incentives, we’ll keep going round in circles, and fly guys like Boris Johnson will keep getting richer and he'll keep shouting about the evils of mass migration to secure the vote whilst waving in ever increasing numbers.

And Sir Keir Starmer’s own personal shares and interests in legal firms (like Matrix Chambers) with substantial human rights litigations (built on the back of mass migration) will continue to surge. It's all a big (rigged) game, and as per usual, ordinary decent folk get played like a fiddle whilst paying for the privilege.

Get ready for another tax hike in Rachel's budget.