Migration Watch UK: News

EU workers in UK 'three or four times' number of Brits working in Europe

There are three or four times the number of EU workers in the UK as there are UK workers in the EU says a new report from think tank Migrationwatch out today.

The number of UK nationals working in other EU countries is approximately 286,000 as against some 1,172,000 workers born in the EU currently working in the UK. The number of EU nationals working here is just over one million (a smaller number as some EU nationals have now acquired British nationality.

The main destinations for British workers are Germany 65,000, Ireland 52,000, Spain 42,000, France 36,000, and Netherlands 28,000.

Reasons for the imbalance may include limited language skills, relatively low unemployment rates in Britain in recent years and the fact that wages here are generally higher than in most EU countries.

"The government have been emphasising that the number of British workers operating under the “Posted Workers Directive” is three times the number of European workers in Britain under the same regulation. However, if all workers are considered the result is reversed,” said Sir Andrew Green, Migrationwatch chairman. ‘Our paper sets the record straight.’

"There is no clear sign yet in these statistics that workers from Eastern Europe are starting to go home in significant numbers,” he added.

"Getting these numbers right is important because it informs debate on a very sensitive issue. Our long held view is that economic migrants from the EU are not likely to become a long term immigration problem as their numbers are expected to come into balance in a few years time. The really big issue remains the very large numbers coming to the UK from outside the EU, again confirmed by the latest figures, at a time when the pressure on jobs here is as intense as it has been for many years."

Freedom of movement in the EU : The Metock case

This is a case decided by the European Court of Justice [ECJ] in July 2008 on a reference made to it by the Irish High Court. It is concerned with the interpretation of Directive 2004/38/EC (sometimes referred to as the Citizens Directive) on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States. The main Article of the Directive which was in issue is Article 5.1 which requires Member States to grant to EU citizens leave to enter with a valid identity card or passport and to grant family members who are not nationals of a Member State leave to enter with a valid passport….

....Concerns have been expressed in the UK and in other Member States that the effect of the judgment will be to make it more difficult to tackle fake marriages, trafficking and people smuggling. It certainly weakens the effectiveness of the Immigration Rules relating to persons already in the country being joined by spouses, parents or children. In the case of spouse visas, paragraph 281 of the Immigration Rules requires inter alia that the applicant can demonstrate that there will be adequate accommodation for the parties in the UK and that they will be able to accommodate and maintain themselves without recourse to public funds. In the case of parents and other dependent relatives paragraphs 317 –319 of the Immigration Rules they must be either over 65 or be living in the most exceptional, compassionate circumstances. In both these cases it is no longer lawful to apply these requirements to third country nationals falling within the scope of the Directive.

The outcome of the case is hardly surprising, given the clear language of the Directive and the applicability of Article 8 of the ECHR. The UKBA will need to be ever vigilant in making good use of Articles 27 and 35, particularly the latter because of the likely extent of abuse by fake marriages.

Statisticians are right to publish and be damned

By Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK

Statisticians can cause quite a stir just by being honest. Yesterday the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the latest employment figures. They show that in the past 12 months the employment of British workers has fallen by about 250,000 while the number of foreign workers has gone up by about 200,000.

Does this show that foreigners are taking “British” jobs and, if so, was the ONS right to publish the analysis on the very day that it also published figures showing unemployment within an ace of two million? ….

…There is also an important distinction between non-UK-born and non-UK nationals.

Economic migrants who have become British citizens are, of course, in the former category. The Government uses this to its advantage, with the Prime Minister saying that non-UK nationals were 8 per cent of the workforce, which sounds better than the 13 per cent who are not UK-born. In the present case both measures show a decline in British employment and a slightly smaller increase in foreign employment.

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