Sam Bowman defends immigration in the Daily Telegraph

Tom Ough's spoke with ASI Executive Director Sam Bowman for his piece in the Daily Telegraph, 'Radically increasing immigration? There couldn't be anything more Conservative'. The article reported:

What’s in it for the Shires? First, it is well-established that immigrants, because they tend to be younger, make a net contribution to our economy. We all benefit from this. There will be concerns that increased immigration will dilute British culture; Sam Bowman, the executive director of the Adam Smith Institute, is persuaded enough of this point to advocate significantly expanded rather than unlimited immigration.

"We can do things to mitigate that issue though," he says, "because we have evidence that freer labour markets make immigrants integrate more quickly. We might also look at the US Green Card system, which is careful to only let a certain number of people in from each country so you get a mix, rather than any single group coming in and ghettoizing."

The old argument of immigrants taking jobs is on the one hand unfair – immigrants create demand for labour as well as supply, their presence puts a premium on English speakers, and the jobs will simply go to another country if not here – and on the other at odds with a party of merit rather than internal economic protectionism.