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News Articles for November 2010
November 30, 2010
Huge public support for government restrictions on economic migration
November 28, 2010
Impact of the 'Immigration Decade' on English Primary Schools
November 26, 2010
Government Still Burying the Bad News on Immigration and Housing
November 25, 2010
The Latest Immigration Statistics
November 23, 2010
Impact of Government Measures
November 23, 2010
Net Migration from the European Union
November 17, 2010
Back Bench Debate on Immigration
Rebuttal of Briefing by the Mayor of London
November 17, 2010
Background brief: Intra-Company Transfers
November 8, 2010
Brussels Leak Reveals Britain to Take Major Share of Indian IT Workers
November 3, 2010
Response to the Home Affairs Committee Report on an immigration cap
Full Text of Press Release : November 2010
Huge public support for government restrictions on economic migration
Widespread concern about the idea that White British might find themselves in a minority in the UK by around 2066
A resounding vote of confidence in the government’s measures announced last week to reduce the number of economic migrants allowed to come to the UK - that was the message of an opinion poll conducted by YouGov for Migrationwatch on 25-26 November.
81% supported this policy (55% strongly) while only 13% opposed (4% strongly). 6% did not know. Interestingly, 79% of Lib Dem's supported the policy, compared to 95% of Conservatives and 69% of Labour voters. Support was very strong in London (87%) and in the rest of the South (84%) but less strong in Scotland (71%).
As for the government’s broader policy aim of getting net immigration down to tens of thousands by the end of this Parliament, most respondents wanted to see an even lower inflow. 70% thought that immigration of 50,000 or less would be best for Britain while 11% favoured 100,000 or more; 21% of Lib Dem's took this view but only 8% Conservatives and 16% Labour voters agreed with them. 19% did not know.
The poll also revealed widespread unhappiness about the result of a recent study which found that, if immigration continues at roughly its present levels, then by around 2066 there will be fewer White British people in the UK than those from other ethnic groups. 73% were unhappy (56% very unhappy) while only2% were happy and 21% were neither or unhappy.
Commenting Sir Andrew Green Chairman Migrationwatch UK said, "These results are a strong vote of confidence in the government’s recent measures to control economic migration. But they are also warning that the public, who would like to see even lower levels of immigration, are very unhappy about the long-term consequences of immigration for the make-up of our society.
Notes
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1,711 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 25th - 26th November 2010. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+). YouGov is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by their rules.
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Impact of the 'Immigration Decade' on English Primary Schools
The dramatic impact on Primary schools of the massive increase in immigration into the UK in the last decade has been spelled out in a new paper from think tank Migrationwatch.
The paper examines the effect of a net increase of more than 2.5 million long-term immigrants from non English speaking countries, between 1991 and 2008.
It follows an earlier Migrationwatch paper which showed that over the next five years to 2015 over half a million more school places will be needed for the children of recent immigrants to the UK - those who arrived after 1998 – at a total cost of £40 billion over the period.
‘These pupils will of course continue through the education system - with all the attendant costs - but it is primary schools where the effect is being felt most acutely at present and where the education of English speaking children is bound to suffer as immigrant children require extra help, ’ said Sir Andrew Green, Migrationwatch chairman.
The paper examines England as a whole, individual regions, and three groups of Local Education Authorities (LEAs) - London Boroughs, the largest urban boroughs outside London, and the remaining LEAs in England. It also projects the numbers to 2018.
In total, between 1991 and 2008, there was a net increase of over 2.5 million in long-term immigrants arriving in the UK from non English speaking countries, mostly to settle. Of these, two million arrived between 1998 and 2008.
The effect on birth rates has been intensified by the rapid increase in the number of foreign born women of reproductive age. In 2007 this total was nearly 43% higher than in 2001.
In contrast, the number of UK born woman of reproductive age was nearly 3% lower in the same period.
In the period 1994 to 2009 the proportion of births to foreign born women rose from 14% to 25%.
In the period 1998 to 2010, the proportion of children in primary schools in England for whom English was not the mother tongue nearly doubled to 16%, or over half a million out of 3.2 million children.
In inner London native English speaking children are already in a minority - in 2010 55% of all primary school pupils did not have English as their first language.
In Outer London the proportion of pupils without English as a mother tongue almost doubled from 22% to 39%.
In six out of the nine regions and in England as a whole, the percentage of children without English as a mother tongue also nearly doubled from 8.5% to 16%.
‘Our projection suggests that the percentage of primary school children in England without English as a mother tongue will increase to 22.7% in 2018, or almost 830,000 - a 60 % increase on current numbers,’ said Sir Andrew.
‘We believe it is important that these issues are discussed as they have enormous implications, not only for our schools at a time of severe financial constraint, but also, if the present scale of immigration is allowed to continue, for the very nature of our society. Once again the case for major reductions in immigration to the UK is powerfully made.’
‘It is astonishing that this situation has been allowed to develop without discussion and without regard to the views of the vast majority of people of this country,’ he said.
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Government Still Burying the Bad News on Immigration and Housing
New immigrants will add about 2 million households by 2033
The government’s household projections for the 25 years from 2008, published today by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), continue to play down the impact of immigration on housing.
The document’s list of key points informs us that "Population growth is the main driver of household growth, accounting for nearly three quarters of the increase in households between 2008 - 2033". It fails to mention that more than 2/3rds of that projected population increase is, itself, due to immigration.
Buried on page 9 of the document is the admission that, if there was no migration in any direction (a theoretical concept), there would be 2.1 million fewer households in 2033 compared to the principal projection, or 83,000 a year on average over that period. The paper continues "Therefore 64% of the average annual increase occurs under the zero migration variant…"
Put another way, 36% of household formation is, broadly speaking, a result of immigration. This compares with 39% in the previous 2006 based household projections.
Commenting Sir Andrew Green Chairman Migrationwatch UK said, "It is inexcusable for this government to paper over the huge impact of continued massive levels of immigration on housing. If immigration is allowed to continue at present levels it will account for just over one third of new households in the next 25 years. The first response to the housing crisis should be to face the facts. The last government was in denial. That cannot be allowed to continue".
Notes to Editors:
The 2008 based household projections are at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/statistics/pdf/1780763.pdf
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The Latest Immigration Statistics
The latest migration statistics confirm that immigration has continued at the high levels of the past five years. The figures also confirm that three million foreign migrants came here under the last government (while 880,000 British people left). Only a quarter of net immigration was from the EU while the net inflow from Eastern Europe was only 16,000 in 2009.
Meanwhile settlement is the highest since records began and has risen across all categories. This entirely justifies the government’s decision to break the link between migration and settlement. The number of students from India coming to the UK doubled from 2008 to 2009 indicating the need for action in this field to ensure that it is only genuine students who are admitted.
Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of MigrationWatch UK, said “These new figures confirm the massive impact that immigration is having on our population. This fully justifies the government’s efforts to get our immigration system under control - a policy that the public overwhelmingly support.”
Sources:
Migration Statistics 2009
Control of immigration Quarterly Statistical Summary July-September 2010
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Impact of Government Measures
| 2009 | New Limit | |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (General) | 14,000 | 1,000 (Exceptional talent) |
| Tier 2 (General) | 8,500 | 20,700 |
| Work Permits (Previous system) | 5,200 | Nil |
| Intra-Company Transfer | 22,000 | No limit, but minimum salary of £40,000 |
| Total | 49,700 | 21,700 |
| 4,250 | Nil |
A direct comparison is not possible. There is a significant reduction on the 2009 immigration figures but Intra-Company Transfers (ICTs) have been excluded from the limit for next year. Against that, the minimum salary for ICTs has been increased from £24,000 p.a. to £40,000. This is likely to reduce the numbers involved. However, even if there is no reduction in ICTs, there will still be a reduction from 50,000 in 2009 to 43,000.
There is also an important hint that the government intends to close down the Tier 1 (Post Study) Route which last year allowed 38,000 foreign graduates to stay on for two years in search of work.
Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of MigrationWatch UK said, ‘This is a thorough and wide-ranging package. The government’s decision to break the link between economic migration and settlement is a major step forward. These measures are a very good start on delivering the government’s immigration pledges. The next stage is to address bogus students and bogus colleges.’
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Net Migration from the European Union
During the leaders debate held at the time of the last election, Nick Clegg famously claimed that 80% of immigration was from the EU.
The latest figures for net immigration (estimates for 2009) show 43,000 net migrants from the EU compared to 226,000 net non-British migrants – just under 20%.
If one takes the average of the last five years, the percentage is 30%.
Source years 2005-2008: Table 2.01a Long Term International Migration. Office for National Statistics.
Source 2009: Migration Statistics Quarterly Report: August 2010. Office for National Statistics.
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Back Bench Debate on Immigration
Rebuttal of Briefing by the Mayor of London
The Scale of immigration
The GLA Briefing claims (paragraph 4) that "net international migration in 2009 was at its lowest level since mid 1995 which is comparable to the government’s target". This is quite wrong. As the paper recognises elsewhere, net international migration in 2009 is estimated at 196,000; in 1995 it was 76,000. The central point is that the average over the past five years has been 200,000 while the ONS projection for 70 million in 20 years is based on the assumption that net migration will continue at 180,000.
The economic impact
The GLA claim that, “If numbers fall in line with government targets… there would be a negative impact of about -1% on GDP”. This is based on a Financial Times article of 18 June which is faulty for reasons fully explained in a Migrationwatch press release of 19 July. Briefly, their calculation assumed that, over a 5 year period, the growth of output would be entirely constrained by the growth of the population over the age of 16. However, with 2.5 million unemployed a shortage of labour is not the main constraint on output.
Furthermore, this claim ignores the point that what matters, as the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs pointed out, is GDP per head. There is nothing in the GLA briefing to suggest that this might fall.
Students
The corrected briefing claims that "80% of overseas students leave the UK within 5 years of entering". In fact, the Home Office research to which they were referring found that 80% were "no longer in the system". That is not to say that they had left the country. There are still no records of departure. In fact, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that overstaying students are a significant part of net migration.
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Background brief: Intra-Company Transfers
The Prime Minister announced on 3 November that work permits for Intra-Company Transfers would not be subject to a cap.
On 5 November, the Home Secretary, speaking at the Policy Exchange Think Tank, hinted at imposing a minimum salary.
Meanwhile, leaks from Brussels suggest that the government will agree to a commitment to accept up to 20,000 Indian workers per year as part of the EU/India Free Trade Agreement.
The Briefing Paper No 3.12 sets out evidence suggesting that this route is being abused. It calls for a number of changes, notably a minimum salary of £50,000 a year.
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Brussels Leak Reveals Britain to Take Major Share of Indian IT Workers
Documents leaked from the European Commission reveal the true state of negotiations with India for the preferential admission of IT workers to the EU. The UK's quota for some worker categories is 40% of the entire EU commitment – almost three times that of Germany and almost seven times that of France.
The Commission is preparing to offer India 35,000 to 50,000 work permits per year, for the categories of Independent Professionals (IPs) and Contractual Service Suppliers (CSS). This offer is part of the response to Indian demands for labour access, within the negotiations for an EU/India Free Trade Agreement being held in secret.
While this is a figure for the number of visas the EU commits to offering, it does not limit how many a member state actually offers.
An unidentified number of visas for a further category, 'Intracorporate Transferees' (ICTs), that is workers brought in to work for their Indian company in the EU, will be additional to these disproportionate quotas for the UK in the CSS and IP categories.
With the Prime Minister's announcement this week that ICTs will be excluded from the government’s 'immigration cap', numbers for this category will not be subject to a UK limit.
The breakdown between member states has been based on the share of the working population of each member state in the relevant sectors and on the share of member states in the total number work permits granted to Indian migrants in the past by EU members, taken together. The effect of this is that Britain's quota is 40% of the total while the UK population is only 12% of the EU. Britain would be committed to up to 20,000, Germany 7,000, France 3,000 and Italy 2,600.
A footnote to the document reveals that some countries have insisted on a cap to Indian workers - ironically, most of them are new East European members.
The negotiations are now well advanced and a deal may be finalised in next week's negotiating Round.
Said Sir Andrew Green, Chairman Migrationwatch UK: ‘This looks suspiciously like a side door to Britain for 15,000 - 20,000 Indian IT workers every year. It is even more astonishing coming at a time when British IT workers are finding it increasingly difficult to find employment and there is a 17% unemployment rate amongst computer science graduates who left university last year. It is time to end the secrecy and for the government to come clean with what is going on and what, if any, safeguards are being put in place.’
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Response to the Home Affairs Committee Report on an immigration cap
Sir Andrew said that "Nearly 100,000 work related visas were issued last year, a significant number compared to net immigration of about 200,000."
"We must, of course, continue to admit key people but economic migration must take a share of the necessary reduction in immigration if our population growth is to be brought under control," he added.
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