Inside Story

Are migrants a benefit or a burden?

UN says by the end of 2015, war in Syria and elsewhere will have forced more than 60 million people from their homes.

The 2015 has been a difficult year to be a refugee or a migrant.

The UN says by the end of the year, war in Syria and elsewhere will have forced more than 60 million people from their homes.

The unprecedented movement of people is putting huge pressures on host nations in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere.

It is also creating an increasingly toxic debate around the migration issue, which critics say is based more on rhetoric than reality.

And which focuses on the perceived threats to security and the burdens on social services.

So why is the debate surrounding migration becoming so politicised? And is the rhetoric obscuring the benefits?

Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault

Guests:

Jonathan Portes – Principal Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Michelle Leighton – Chief of the Migration Branch at the International Labour Organization

Alan Mendoza – Founder & Director of the Henry Jackson Society