1. Introduction

The phenomenon of immigration is a critical challenge for every country regarding socio-economic terms (Grande et al., 2019). During the past two decades, the United Kingdom UK has gradually received migrants from all over the world into their state. The immigration rate in EU countries has risen in the last three decades. Nine million immigrants (7.4 million individuals of working age) are currently live in the UK. Thus, immigration has had a dynamic effect on the British economy, including salary and compensation, inflation, economic growth, productivity, and tax income (Howley et al., 2020).

Furthermore, immigration seems to have a huge influence on the Economy of the UK substantially. Initially, the population of commonwealth immigrants helped a lot in sustaining the services for transportation and healthcare. However, several successful British company owners and leaders have come to settle as a migrant in the United Kingdom. Immigration allows drastic improvement in efficiency by lowering the expense of complementary skills and increasing employees' incentives to better develop their skills for the UK's economy (Burnett and Chebe, 2020). To understand the impact of immigration on the UK's economy, the current study gives recent insights through authentic sources for reference.

2. Description of Literature and Data 

In the literature section, the study provides details about immigration and its impact on the UK economy.

2.1. Immigration and its impact on UK's Economy

The immigration program is deemed the most successful way to monitor the workforce, particularly controlling population growth patterns (Vilella et al., 2020). To create a constructive effect from migrants, the country must incorporate them into the culture through an integration system (Dustmann and Frattini, 2014). However, integration is an essential aspect of the public recognition of minority communities. Integration is not necessarily the same for all; it relies on several variables such as immigration status, legal structure, and the country's economic conditions. In the context of the United Kingdom, UK, immigration plays the most significant role during the last two decades for the nation's success and growth (Coulter, 2018). It has helped the UK to become a more competitive and successful nation (Alfano et al., 2020). The immigrants are considered as the weak part of the population; therefore, they are responsible for two reasons of involving in inappropriate activities: firstly, the immigrant wants some work to be performed (for sustaining himself and his family) and to be willing to work with his company in a stronger position for oneself. Thus, immigrants help in contributing to the economy of the UK (Ruhs and Anderson, 2010).

Migrants usually appear to be of working age and moved to the UK to get an adequate job. They may carry investment income, but the immigration rate usually contributes to an increase in workforce, a decrease in the poverty rate, and an increase in the UK's economic potential production ability (Chakravorty, 2019). Additionally, the high immigration rate in the UK may lead to a high rate of aggregate demand. Migrants may help the economy to get stronger. A major cause for immigration is higher education. Around 485,645 overseas students studied in the UK in 2018/19. However, these students do not usually do something in long-term migration patterns; but the short-term effects are also very important (McLeay et al., 2020).

Recent migration statistics have revealed that nearly 6.2 million citizens of migrants residing in the UK in 2019 (UK Parliament). The increase in population may also lead to some negative consequences in UK's economy. Moreover, the increase in population may impose pressure on government, infrastructure and other services such as housing and healthcare, to accommodate the migrants and the native residents in the UK. An additional negative aspect is that the growing rate of migration is the risk of conflict between the residents and immigrants; the unemployment rate of native residents in the UK increases with the increasing immigration rate. However, the residents feel insecure regarding the unemployment. A previous study revealed that there is a negative link between immigrants' employment share and native employment ratio (Angioloni and Wu, 2020).

2.2. Description of Data

The current study's data has been identified and collected through sufficient resources from present academia; that includes a variety of authentic UK-based websites and international journals. The study has found some latest publications that have steady growth started a few years back. The detailed description of selected sources is discussed in the next section of the study.

3. Literature and Data sources

Identifying appropriate data sources for a qualitative study is challenging; thus, it is important to find reliable and authentic data collection sources. A qualitative approach has been used in the present study to identify the impact of immigration on the UK; economy. Furthermore, different factors of the UK economy have been evaluated on which immigration influences the most. Generally, the qualitative data analysis follows an inductive approach and needs credible and trustworthy sources of data. Besides, reliable sources may differ for different disciplines and methodologies, but a credible reference for educational research is usually impartial and evidence-backed. While preparing a research paper, it is essential to use and cite reliable references. An individual should read the articles for referencing mostly from peer-reviewed journals; peer-reviewed publications are academic papers accepted after rigorous editorial scrutiny for publication. Publishers are typically referred as scholarly publications, education institutions, research associations, academic associations, and other recognized entities. On the journal website, an individual may notice basic information such as the details of the authors, scholars of the publishing board, and the Editor-in-Chief. A person can go to the publisher site and enter the keywords to get relevant academic papers from reliable journals.

The current study implies the appropriate procedure of data mining, as mentioned earlier. Additionally, the keywords that are used for searching the papers are immigration, the rate of immigration, UK economy, the importance of immigration, current immigration status, new immigration system, immigration policies in the UK, the economic impact of immigration to the UK, and fiscal effects of immigration. Search engines were used to browse different academic researches, sources and databases. The publisher sites used in the present study are Emerald Insight, Science Direct, Springer, Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor and Francis, sage publisher, Molecular Diversity Preservative International (MDPI) and some authentic websites of UK economic forum.

4. Summary of the literature and data

There would be significant economic gains, including increased labor force stability, expertise, creativity and demand because of immigration. On the other side, immigration is still challenging; there will be concerns that government facilities will be disrupted because of the country's high immigration rate. In recent decades, the UK has become a state to host many immigrants. The immigration rate in the UK is higher than the lower GDP per capita in other nations. This assessment is significantly associated with life satisfaction and unemployment rates in the UK. The previous studies revealed the pros and cons of immigration within the state of the United Kingdom. Immigration can be a great source of economic growth as it offers a flexible workforce by filling the vacancies in the UK (Bernard and Perales, 2021). There would be an increase in the number of jobs because of the UK population growth through immigration. Population generates additional income for the nation, resulting in increased tax collections and more effective government expenditure (Simionescu et al., 2017). Furthermore, immigration also offers very diversified and skilled employees and employers in the UK market. Foreign immigrants in the UK are more likely to become entrepreneurs of starting up enterprises that may offer innovative goods.

A recent study revealed that immigrants are more likely to pursue additional skills and education in the UK. For instance, around 20% of the United Kingdom population completed their education above the age of 21. In the UK, immigrants have completed their qualification and start serving the nation at the age of twenty-one. Immigrants pay adequate tax to the UK government; since immigrants are younger in age and more willing to be hired than native people, immigrants may bring positive economic benefits to the UK government (Kasnauskiene and Palubinskaite, 2020). Workers may pay income tax and do not get incentives like public health insurance or education; because young people receive health care facilities less frequently than older people. Simultaneously, the decision to withdraw from the European Union opened up a time of political and economic instability in the UK.

After that, UK has faced some economic issues because of immigration, such as the real GDP per capita downfall, potential negative influence on wages, structural unemployment, housing cost in the UK, and dissonance from steady immigration (Mărginean et al., 2020). Eventually, the present study examined that a significant increase in immigration would substantially benefit the UK. Still, it may cause a high unemployment rate for the native population that creates dissonance and conflicts among people (Hu, 2020). Furthermore, the quality of government services (education and healthcare) and infrastructures goes down with the increase in the migrant rate.

The present study offers several contributions, as it provides in-depth knowledge about immigration. The study is significant and beneficial for future readers because it gives insights and understanding about immigration, specifically in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, it provides the positive and negative impacts of the high immigration rate in the UK. By exploring this study, a reader can develop an overview of why people immigrated, including advantages and disadvantages; previous and recent perceptions about immigration; and the impact immigrants have on the UK economy. Thus, the study will help future researchers uncover the importance, potential benefits, and drawbacks of foreign immigration in the United Kingdom. 

5. Evaluation of the relevance and reliability

Strong literature can be evaluated through various credible sources such as academic research, scholarly articles, and current government reports. It analyses the existing literature that focuses on the relevant topic. This study provides detailed insights to analyze the academic data sources. It is very important to read and understand the relevant issues critically on academic publishers. Besides, Usefulness, authority, and reliability are aspects that a reader must focus on while evaluating the appropriate resources. The present study focused on the evaluation process of reliable data by searching keywords on Google Scholar. After that, the credibility and reliability of the journal and publisher have been examined. After examining the journal and publisher's authenticity, the next step followed to check the date of issuance. A researcher must focus on up-to-date articles as recent articles may give the most reliable and relevant insights. By following the process as mentioned earlier, the study gathered authentic data resources.

6. Conclusion

The available literature on "immigration impacts on the UK economy" is vast, and the current study has only touched on some major points. The surveyed evidence from the credible data sources finds that immigration can positively impact and negatively impact the country's economy, depending on the current economic conditions. In the UK, the economic conditions are comparatively sustainable than in other nations. After examining the previous studies, it is found that immigration plays a very significant role in the UK. Additionally, it provides positive insights such as an increase in economic growth, a flexible and better workforce, more employment opportunities, and increased government income through high tax revenue in the country. The current immigration rate is getting higher because of the positive insights. In contrast, UK has recently faced ostacles, such as Brexit and COVID-19, which causes the delay in the immigration process of current applicants in the UK government.