Leaving aside the issue of what illegal migration is supposed to be, let us have a look at how asylum seekers cost the country money and harm the economy. Yes, the process costs money: • processing claims • housing during the wait • appeals • basic support But this is the only expensive phase. Once someone is granted refugee status and allowed to work, the economics invert: Refugees are consistently a net positive to the economy. They are disproportionately likely to: • enter the workforce quickly, • start businesses at higher-than-average rates, • fill labour shortages, • pay more in taxes than they ever took in temporary support. And unlike many domestic workers, they are typically young, which means they contribute to the tax base for decades while drawing far less in age-related services. It is the waiting period, government policy, that creates the appearance of cost. And even that cost is dwarfed by: • the economic cost of the UK’s labour shortages, • the cost of detention, • the extravagant sums spent on outsourcing and by mismanagement, • and the dubious block-out hotel contracts to the hotel owners for often lackluster accommodation, caused by backlogs that nobody, least of all the refugees, want. If people were allowed to work while their claims are assessed as many countries do the cost drops to zero.