The UK's immigrant population is contributing proportionately more money in tax to the exchequer than native British workers.
New figures from the Institute for Public Policy (IPPR) show that for every £100 contributed by a UK-born worker 2003-04, an immigrant contributed £112, a rise from £105 for every native worker's £100 in 1999-00.
As a whole, immigrants made up 8.7% of the population in 2003-04 but accounted for 10.2% of all collected income tax, the report found.
The government accrued an average of £7,203 in revenue for each immigrant that year compared to £6,861 per non-immigrant, growing in total from £33.8 billion five years ago to £41.2 billion in 2003-04.
"They are not a drain on the UK's resources," said Nick Pearce, director of the IPPR. "Our research shows that immigrants make an important fiscal contribution to the UK and pay more than their share."
And their share is growing more rapidly. While there are more immigrant workers in the UK than the last time the figures were calculated, they are still paying a disproportionate amount in tax relative to their share of the UK population.
The study also found that immigrant workers gross about 15% more per week in pay on average than native Britons, earning £405.83 a week and £355.06 a week, respectively, suggesting that many immigrants are in skilled and better-paying jobs than five years ago.
In terms of cost to the government, despite the growing public perception, immigrant workers accounted for less government expenditure at £7,277 on average than non-immigrants, at £7,753.
In its study, the left-leaning but independent think tank analysed tax and spending figures from the Office of National Statistics to see how they corresponded with the official Labour Force Survey.
