The immigration trade-off
Most British people think we let in too many immigrants but restricting foreign workers comes at a cost.
Today, buried in the of the , is a revelation and a warning.
The revelation is that employers in the social care and catering industries have been "misusing" the work permit scheme to bring in thousands of foreigners to fill low skilled jobs.
The warning is that having grown accustomed to employing cheap workers from the developing world, new eligibility rules may well make the cost of caring for the elderly even more expensive.
David Metcalf, chair of the MAC, put it to me like this: "If you want to keep wages down, you will need more immigrants."
He talks of it as "trade-off". The up-shot is that if we restrict ourselves to the European labour market, we will have to pay European prices.
Ministers will almost certainly accept the MAC's list of occupations, jobs in which is felt a lack of skills in Europe mean employers are justified in going further afield.
Much of the press coverage will focus on ballet dancers, jockeys, hovercraft officers and sheep shearers where it is accepted there is a genuine shortage.
But it is in those occupations which do not make it onto the committee's list that much of the impact will be felt.
Roughly one in every seven care workers is from overseas - in London it's nearer one in two. Thousands have come from the Philippines and Zimbabwe, prepared to be ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳s (British Bottom Cleaners) in return for a wage too low to attract enough domestic applicants.
Some care staff are deemed skilled and in short supply - but they are identified by a wage in excess of £8.79 an hour. Not many care homes will pay that kind of money.
Managers argue that they simply cannot afford to. They are reliant on local authority budgets for social care and rules on minimum staffing levels which leave no room for pay rises.
This is what the MAC says in its report: "We were told by representatives of the care sector organisations that some care homes had empty beds due to staff shortages. We were also told that increasing pay to reduce vacancies was not currently an option, as the expenditure of care providers is partially limited by local authority funding."
"But," the committee report continues, "such budgets are not set for all time. To the extent that any shortage turns on low pay and these services are a genuine priority, it is necessary for budgets to be larger so that the workers in the sector can be paid more."
For thousands of people who struggle to pay care costs for their elderly or disabled relatives, any increase can translate directly into less help and greater suffering.
Tonight the Department of Health told me it was carefully considering the implications of immigration controls for social care services.
The government is discussing how to develop the domestic workforce. But it appears attracting British workers for British jobs can come at a price.
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