But the government’s own commissioned research on the issue suggests something very different. Reports in 2011, 2017 and 2023 laid out the facts of the UK’s hidden economy, meaning work that is in legal sectors but that people are failing to register for regulatory or tax purposes (rather than illicit activities, such as drug-dealing and sex work, which are wholly or partly criminalised). According to the most recent estimate, about 8.8% of our adult population is working under the table; that’s approximately 4.4 million people. There are 700,000 to 900,000 undocumented migrants in the UK with no right to work and a further 224,000 asylum seekers awaiting a decision, many of whom will also be barred from earning. Even if all of those migrants were working illegally, they would comprise a small minority of hidden economy activity. Moreover, the research finds no statistically significant difference in proportions of workers across urban versus rural areas, nor different geographical regions, despite substantial differences in migrant populations. Conclusion? The hidden economy is not a migrant problem.