These five charts might make you rethink your views on immigration

Wow. A new study shows that EU migrants added some £20bn to the UK economy between 2000 and 2011.

The research, from University College London, looked at net contribution – i.e. accounting for any state benefits given to EU migrants that would detract from the economic benefit of them living and working here.

The study highlighted how many EU migrants hold degrees: more than 60% of migrants from southern and western Europe hold degrees, and more than 25% from eastern Europe.

The UK in fact attracts more EU graduates than Germany.

So what else do we know about EU migrants and immigrants from elsewhere who live in the UK?

Yesterday, the Office for National Statistics released a load of interesting analyses of immigration from 2011 Census data.

Here’s what we learnt…

Sophie Hobson is the editor of LondonlovesBusiness.com. Talk to her @sophiehobson

Most EU migrants have jobs

Among working-age UK residents, a higher percentage of EU migrants are in employment than UK-born residents.

UK residents born outside the EU have a lower employment rate than UK-born residents.

These are the nationalities most and least likely to be in work…

Employment rates are highest among Polish and South African-born UK residents. More than four in five Polish-born people living in the UK are in work, and almost as many South Africans are.

People living in the UK who were born in China or Bangladesh have the lowest employment rates.

But interestingly, people who have recently arrived from China are among the least likely to be economically inactive. Only 6.1% of recent arrivals from China are economically inactive, second only to Ireland at 6%.

Employment rates are highest among Polish and South African-born UK residents, and lowest among Chinese and Bangladeshi-born

The vast majority of immigrants hold qualifications

Almost nine in 10 people born overseas who moved to the UK between 2007 and 2011 held a qualification.

These qualifications could be secondary and tertiary education qualifications, vocational qualifications such as apprenticeships, up to degrees and post-graduate qualifications.

Immigration qualifications

One in three immigrants have a degree – that’s more than UK-born residents

Some 34.8% of people living in the UK but born overseas have a degree or higher. That compares with 25.9% of the UK-born population.

Recent arrivals are the most likely to hold a degree – some 37.7% have one.

That proportion has been increasing over the past few decades: 28.7% of non-UK-born residents who have been living here more than 30 years hold a degree, while 36.3% of those who arrived between 11 and 30 years ago do.