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News imageDestination UKBorn Abroad - An immigration map of BritainBorn Abroad: An immigration map of Britain
How different immigrant groups perform
Economic success comes down to factors including skills, the labour landscape, employment law and even racism. Some migration is not primarily for economic reasons, such as refugees and students.

What is clear is that there is a wide disparity in performance between and within nationalities. For instance, Bangladesh-born people can be said to do really badly. But this has a lot to do with the jobs they tend to come to, and there are improvements over time.

Crucially, we can see new migrants in poorly paid jobs - indicating how demand for cheap labour plays a key role in migration economics.

Bar chart showing percentage of new immigrants earning below half UK median wage: Bangladesh 63.3%; Ex-Czechoslovakia 47.92%; Malawi 45.45%; Hong Kong 44.44%; China 38.16%.

In the table below, low earners are people earning less than �149.20 a week (half the UK median wage), high earners are people earning more than �750 a week.
Click column titles to sort table by that column.
Immigrants' economic performance
NEW IMMIGRANTS (%)SETTLED IMMIGRANTS (%)
Sort by:

EmployedLow earnersHigh earnersEmployedLow earnersHigh earners
Algeria46.48n/an/a59.96n/an/a
Angola30.07n/an/a81.17n/an/a
Australia90.576.7627.0381.9211.9814.37
Bangladesh42.7563.332.2240.0139.024.27
Belgium75.812016.6776.93n/an/a
Brazil57.38n/an/a80.7n/an/a
British Isles*73.4921.086.9873.4921.086.98
Bulgaria82.58n/an/a70.63n/an/a
Canada82.7616.915.4978.1213.2515.89
China35.8138.163.9558.58n/an/a
Colombia49.96n/an/a66.48n/an/a
Cyprus35.44n/an/a60.93n/an/a
Denmark65.26n/an/a86.2n/an/a
Egypt55.98n/an/a70.33n/an/a
Ethiopia32.28n/an/a64.44n/an/a
Ex-Czechoslovakia72.9947.92n/a71.55n/an/a
Ex-USSR54.6729.36.4n/an/an/a
Ex-Yugoslavia35.3221.825.4564.2n/an/a
Finland75.8310.8113.5174.01n/an/a
France72.46814.2971.6624.739.68
Germany 68.820.4813.2575.46217.55
Ghana63.717.193.1369.5115.045.31
Greece49.8117.57.572.52n/an/a
Hong Kong46.644.448.3374.1324.486.29
India65.9816.4318.1362.8515.97.88
Iran31.7133.3312.1276.0912.924.19
Iraq37.9826.327.8977.71n/an/a
Italy73.4213.2713.2772.0622.564.51
Jamaica54.4129.79065.2112.844.28
Japan47.0617.3923.9163.15n/an/a
Kenya60.9519.615.8877.0612.8111.14
Korea35.39n/an/a34.56n/an/a
Lebanonn/an/an/an/an/an/a
Malawin/an/an/an/a2512.50
Malaysia58.2236.847.8983.957.3216.26
Mauritius75.2n/an/a69.34n/an/a
Netherlands75.916.5631.1576.423.6418.18
New Zealand93.565.9725.3781.5215.0727.40
Nigeria61.1518.4813.0472.9314.1715.00
Norway62.76n/an/a77.46n/an/a
Pakistan44.0235.43.7343.8723.026.75
Philippines85.412.80.6177.9115.381.28
Poland70.623.641.826631.717.32
Portugal70.6813.392.6868.57146.00
Somalia12.17n/an/a38.02n/an/a
South Africa81.5210.2813.6175.7915.0918.40
Spain71.2215.052.1571.4823.447.81
Sri Lanka60.0828.441.8379.61022.50
Sweden69.554.5531.8267.88n/an/a
Trinidad n/a7.147.14n/a15.380.00
Turkey41.6131.942.7848.1126.673.33
Uganda47.03n/an/a74.947.616.66
USA68.087.7840.5676.0518.0716.27
West Indiesn/an/an/an/a14.750.00
Zambia62.33n/an/a80.4114.4710.53
Zimbabwe73.1716.954.5281.096.3315.19

*British Isles figures: New and settled immigrant status does not apply, but figures displayed like this for easy comparison
SEE ALSO


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