london a report on monday said immigrants to britain are bettereducated than native ukborn workers the immigrants generally stay stuck in bluecollar lowwage jobs beneath their levels of learning suffer horrific exploitation almost dickensian in its pathos and contribute a disproportionably large amount to their adopted country by helping to keep inflation and interest rates down the mixed portrait of the grey zone that constitutes the lives of immigrants here came in a report linked to the heavyweight monetary policy committee mpc of the bank of england and a separate hardhitting speech by the deputy head of the trades union congress the umbrella organization representing more than six and a half million workers in britain the bank of england report published on monday by researchers linked to the mpc paints a glowing picture of the contribution made by immigrants to britain the report says britains politically controversial fourfold rise in net immigration in the past decade is actually helping to stem wage inflation thereby keeping interest rates down and the jobs market healthy and sustainable the report however flew in the face of conventional wisdom which decrees further immigration is too much of a political hot potato for britain to handle it said the positive economic fallout could only be sustained if successive waves of immigrants continue to flood into the uk economists said this is consistent with strong views expressed on the issue by mervyn king governor of the bank of england who has previously criticized britains lack of accurate constantlyupdated migration statistics which are seen to be critical to the mpcs view of spare capacity in the economy in an ironic coincidence the bank of englands sunshine picture of immigrant abilities and contribution to the uk economy came on the very day the tucs deputy general secretary decided to spell out the horror stories of life as a migrant worker in britainthe tucs frances ogrady said migrants often lived through a dickensian nightmare except that it was happening here and now in britaincalling for a social agreement between government employers and trades unions on migration ogrady said in apparent concurrence with the banks report migrant workers make a massive contribution to our economy public services and national life but she added some have a positive experience of working in britain but the daytoday reality many face is exploitation dangerous working conditions and employment far below their skill levelmeanwhile the banks report used existing immigration figures to reveal that the proportion of foreignborn residents in britain aged between 16 and 64 had risen in the last decade from eight per cent in 1995 to 11 per cent it said onefifth were from the indian subcontinent another fifth born in the european union and one quarter were from africa or west asia the bank said just under half of those who had migrated to britain in the past two years had university degrees a high level of educational attainment compared to british workers just 17 per cent of whom are