In the UK we are currently paying twice as much as we could on imported goods such as coffee and bananas, and the underlying reason may be surprising to some.

Research on immigration and prices in the UK indicates that immigration reduces the average price growth of non-traded goods and services. Moreover, for goods and services produced with low wage, labour intensive technologies, immigration decreases the growth rate of prices. In particular, the paper shows that an increase in the immigrants-natives ratio of one percentage point would lead to a 0.2% decrease in prices of such services. This reflects the occupational distribution of recent immigrants, whereby they concentrate in low-wage occupations in labour intensive sectors.

This short film documents two Fairtrade certified producer organisations, BANELINO and ASOBANU in the Dominican Republic.

Why then are there so many immigrants held in detention centres - especially children?

The member states of the European Union have widely varying policies regarding undocumented immigrants. Some detain them systematically whilst others do not; some limit detention to 32 days whilst others have unlimited detention. It has been claimed the UK Government's treatment of the children of asylum seekers in detention is "abusive" and "dehumanising". The chief executive of the Welsh Refugee Council said the Government was in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulates that detention shall only be used as a last resort for the shortest appropriate period of time. Even more insidiously, the European Union is at the same time encouraging the creation of detention camps outside its borders - such camps already exist in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Turkey, Moldavia, and the Ukraine.

Immigration contributes to reduce price growth of services in sectors with a high concentration of low-wage workers such as restaurants, bars and takeaway food through its effects on the supply of labour. We need to think carefully about the benefits of immigration, and also think about the children of those held in detention. Children who have been refused asylum should no longer be detained whilst awaiting deportation.

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