Today seems to be the day for articles about immigration statistics. First thing this morning Jonathan Portes, director of the NIESR, blogged in response to Damian Green and Chris Grayling’s article in the Telegraph. Then this afternoon Chris Bryant and Stephen Timms also stepped up and wrote a piece for PoliticsHome claiming that Green and Grayling had used dodgy statistics. For people who are so worried about accuracy in statistics it’s also good to see that Bryant and Timms are so keen on accuracy when it comes to words. Word for word accuracy as it happens (See the red below). Of course when it comes to sourcing they’re slightly less concerned, confusing the NIESR’s report for Portes’ blog. Their claimed quote doesn’t appear in the report, but the words used are identical to those used by Portes. Nothing like a bit of plagarism to help argue your point on accuracy. Bryant and Timms' article Portes' blog Paragraph 6: Migrants represent about 13% of all workers, but less than 7% percent of out-of-work claimants. Foreign nationals from outside the EEA represent about 4.5% of all workers, but a little over 2% of out-of-work benefit claimants. Paragraph 4: So, summing up these numbers in very rough percentages: • migrants represent about 13% of all workers, but only 7% percent of out-of-work claimants; • migrants from outside the EEA represent about 9-10% of all workers, but about 5% of out-of-work claimants • foreign nationals from outside the EEA represent about 4.5% of all workers, but a little over 2% of out-of-work benefit claimants. Paragraph 7: Indeed recent research for the Government's own Migration Advisory Committee, carried out by the NIESR, notes: "Looking at the main elements of state spending - benefits, health and education - migrants impose less than proportionate costs on the state." Paragraph 7: So, as a result of our research for the MAC and the government's own research, we now know that, looking at the main elements of state spending - benefits, health and education (nobody's looked at pensions yet, the last big chunk, but the story is likely to be the same, only more so) - migrants impose less than proportionate costs on the state.