The Economic Value of Immigration: What Would the UK Lose Without Migrants?

Every day, people go to work, manage their businesses, care for others, provide services, buy goods, pay taxes and create opportunities.

Much of this activity is so ordinary that we rarely stop to consider the people behind it.

Among them are millions of migrants who live and work across the UK.

Their contribution to the economy is not a single figure. It is found in the jobs they do, the businesses they build, the taxes they pay, the skills they bring and the economic activity they generate every day.

An Economy Powered by People

Migrants work across a wide range of industries, from healthcare and social care to construction, technology, education, hospitality, transport, manufacturing and research.

The UK’s immigration statistics show the scale of the country’s reliance on international workers. In the year ending December 2025, 168,471 work visas were granted to main applicants, while 782,000 grants of permission to stay were made on work routes, including people extending or switching their visas.

These figures represent more than immigration statistics.

They represent people entering workplaces, filling roles, using their skills and contributing to the production of goods and delivery of services.

In sectors such as health and social care, international recruitment has also played a significant role in supporting the workforce. The expansion of the Health and Care Worker route in 2022 was specifically intended to help boost the social care workforce.

But employment is only one part of the picture.

The Economic Activity Beyond Employment

Migrants are also entrepreneurs, employers, consumers and investors in their communities.

A migrant who starts a business can create employment for others. A worker who earns a salary pays taxes and spends money on housing, food, transport and services. A professional who brings specialist skills can help an organisation deliver its work. A business owner serving a local community contributes to the economic life of that community.

These activities are connected.

Income becomes spending.
Spending supports businesses.
Businesses employ people.
Workers provide services.
Services support other parts of the economy.

That is what makes the economic contribution of migrants bigger than simply counting the jobs they take.

So, What Would the UK Lose?

This is where A Day Without UK Immigrants asks us to pause.

Imagine removing migrant workers, professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners from the UK economy for just one day.

The question is not whether Britain would survive.

It would.

The question is what would be missing?

Which shifts would go unfilled?

Which businesses would struggle to open?

Which services would have fewer people available to deliver them?

Which customers, employees and business owners would be absent from the daily flow of economic activity?

The exercise makes something visible that is easy to overlook when we only talk about migration through statistics and policy.

People are the economy.

And migrants are part of the people who make the UK economy work every day.

Seeing the Contribution

Immigration is complex. There are legitimate discussions about migration policy, public services, housing, infrastructure and how the system should be managed.

But a complete conversation must also include contribution.

Migrants are not simply people who arrive in the UK.

They become workers, professionals, entrepreneurs, employers, taxpayers, consumers, neighbours and community members.

They participate in the economy in ways that are often visible only when their absence creates a gap.

That is the idea behind A Day Without UK Immigrants.

For one day, we ask the UK to imagine the economic activity that would be missing if migrant contributions suddenly stopped.

Not to suggest that migrants are the only people who keep Britain moving.

But to recognise that they are part of what keeps Britain moving.

And perhaps, when we imagine a day without them, we begin to see something that everyday life has made easy to overlook:

The economic value of immigration is ultimately found in people—their work, their skills, their businesses, their spending and the value they create every day.

A Day Without UK Immigrants asks us to notice that contribution.