Migration Watch UK: News

New poll shows seven out of ten want immigration slashed

75% worried about impact immigration is having on Britain,5% are pleased. Nearly 2/3rds of Labour voters want immigration sharply cut.

On the day that new Government statistics show that immigration in 2008 was 163,000, a new YouGov poll for Migrationwatch UK reveals the vast majority of the public are concerned about immigration and want it cut substantially so that the UK’s population does not hit 70 million in 2029, as official figures project.

To avoid the population hitting 70 million, net migration needs to be cut to 50,000 a year, a cut of 113,000 from the latest figure.

The YouGov poll found that 72% want it cut to 50,000 or less. Nearly two thirds of people (62%) who say they would vote Labour or Liberal Democrat want immigration cut to 50,000 or less.

The poll reveals the public’s lack of trust in the Government on an issue which most people find worrying. 77% of people disagree that the Government is open and honest about the scale of immigration into Britain: only a third (32%)of those who say they would vote Labour agree the Government is open and honest. 76% of people are worried about the impact that immigration is having on Britain. The region where concern is greatest is the North of England, where 80% are worried compared to just over two thirds in London. Just 5% of respondents said they were “pleased” about the impact immigration is having on Britain.

Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch UK said:

‘The government claim that their policies are contributing to a fall in immigration and that our population will not reach 70 million but very few believe them, and rightly so. We are firmly on track for three million immigrants under this government yet their much trumpeted Points Based System only applies to one in five of those permitted to enter Britain and has no limits whatever. Today’s immigration figures confirm that unless we change direction, immigration will add another seven million to our population in the next 25 years – that’s equivalent to seven cities the size of Birmingham. With the prime minister yet again ruling out any cap on numbers at the CBI conference, the Government has demonstrated just how out of touch it is with the views of the British people.

'Clearly, immigration is still out of control. The time has come for politicians of all parties to level with the public and make a clear commitment to hold immigration well below 50,000 a year.’

Immigration Figures Due for Release on 26 November 2009

Background Briefing

Annual immigration figures for calendar 2008, the last before the election, will be published by the ONS on Thursday 26 November. The note (Briefing Paper 9.26)puts the figures, and Government claims about their immigration policy, into perspective.

We expect the net immigration figure to be about 150,000 compared to 237,000 for 2007 – a drop of 37%.

The reason has very little to do with government policy. 75% of the drop is due to more East Europeans going home.

Contrary to government claims, the new immigration figures have already been largely factored into the latest ONS population projections which point to a UK population of 70 million in 2029.

The projections show no sign of the population increase starting to slow down as the Immigration Minister has claimed. To the contrary, they show continued rapid growth.

The figures will confirm that we are on track for over 3 million immigrants under Labour – even that is not counting illegal immigrants.

Sir Andrew Green: The Government's Points Based immigration system is a potential disaster

Ministers have perfected a patter when talking about immigration. “We’re sorry – we’ve made mistakes, but we’re now getting it under control with our new, tough, Australian-style Points Based System”, they say. Last week, in his first speech on immigration in two years, Gordon Brown trumpeted the merits of the Points Based System (PBS) for immigration and citizenship. He claimed that "together they constitute a fundamental reform of a decade's old system - a reform founded on the British values of personal responsibility and civic duty."

Read the full article

The Prime Minister's Speech Ducked the Impact of Immigration on Population

November 13, 2009

In his speech on 12 November, the Prime Minster made no mention of the official population projections which show that the population will reach 70 million in 2029. Some commentators have claimed that these projections are "meaningless". Migrationwatch research (see Briefing Paper 9.25) puts this issue in prospective and shows that 70 million is very likely unless the government take very strong measures to cut back immigration.

The Points Based System: Why it will not stop our population hitting 70 million

November, 11 2009

"At his press conference on 10 November, the Prime Minister claimed that the Goverment's Points Based System "has made a huge difference" to immigration.

However, our study of the system reveals very serious weaknesses. We think that it has eliminated the professional judgement of Immigration Officers in favour of a complex box ticking process which is wide open to fraud. (see Briefing Paper 3.9)

"Furthermore, the Government's own assessment is that it would only have reduced immigration by 20,000 if it had been operating throughout 2008. A reduction of at least 100,000 a year is needed if the population of the UK is to be kept below 70 million."

Labour Concealed a shift in immigration policy

In Parliament yesterday the Immigration Minister denied that there had been any change in immigration policy in 2001 nor, therefore, any political motive. However, there is clear evidence of a Labour shift in immigration policy in 2001-2 which was concealed from the public at the time, according to the Briefing Paper by think tank Migrationwatch.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman, MigrationwatchUK, said "The government went to great lengths to keep secret documents dealing with immigration policy. Now we know why. Looking back we can see clear evidence that recent revelations about a political motive in promoting mass immigration were indeed correct."

Huge Cost of Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants Quantified

An amnesty for illegal immigrants would be bound to encourage further illegal immigration, their present number has been seriously underestimated and the lifetime cost would be in the order of £130 billion even on that low estimate of numbers, says a report out today from think-tank Migrationwatch.

The report is in reply to a paper published by the London School of Economics on 16 June in response to a request from London's Mayor. Introducing the document, Boris Johnson claimed it proved that immigrants were "far from a financial burden". He added:

    "This new Report has introduced some long overdue facts, hard evidence and academic rigour into a debate which has far too often been dominated by myth, anecdote and hearsay".

Clearly the Mayor had not read the Report which makes it clear that "It has to be emphasised that these are ball park estimates at best" (page 110) and that "many of the numbers that had been generated for this Report have required heroic assumptions" page 113).

The Mayor also claimed that:

   "So far from a financial burden, as some suggest, this new research has found an amnesty could be worth up to £3 billion a year to the country's economy."

What the Report actually says is:

"Neither the literature nor currently available UK data provides a quantitative basis from which one could at all reliably start to estimate the scale of effects on UK output which would be likely to follow from regularisation"(page 73).

The Report is, in fact, astonishingly thin on its claim of economic benefit - just two paragraphs in 125 pages. It goes on to take what is described as "an example". This gives, on the basis of four hypotheses, an expected increase in GDP of some £3 billion (page 73).

Migrationwatch have now examined this Report in detail and have found that:...

See Full Press Release