Migration Watch UK: News

The British in Europe

There are 407,000 British workers in other countries of the European Union, compared to over 1.4 million workers from another EU country in the UK.

To see the full Briefing Paper No 4.21 click here.

Sir Andrew Green's Letter in The Daily Telegraph

Curbing Immigration 

Sir,

I am most grateful for your generous endorsement of Migrationwatch in today’s editorial (“Labour has no right to lecture on immigration”).

Looking ahead, we must recognize that many are shell shocked by the pace of change in our society, now underscored by the census results.  Integrating the nearly three million immigrants who have arrived in the last ten years will be vital to the harmony of our society but this cannot be achieved unless the inflows are brought under control.

That is why, in our view, David Cameron’s historic pledge was - and is – of central importance.   By setting a clear objective he has given direction and coherence to immigration policy.   We now project that he has a fighting chance of achieving it, provided that he sticks to his guns. Special interest groups will, of course, continue to fight their corners but the public interest in getting immigration under control is surely overwhelming.

© Copyright of Sir Andrew Green

Speech by Labour Party Leader, Ed Miliband this morning

Following the speech made this morning by the Labour Party Leader, Ed Miliband, Sir Andrew Green said:

"The steps which Ed Miliband outlined to promote integration are perfectly sensible but there was a glaring gap in his speech - namely his failure to say anything significant about limiting the scale of future immigration. Apparently, he is only going to "look at the whole system". Does he seriously think that we can integrate three million migrants into our community every ten years? Until Labour undertake to place limits on immigration they will not get a hearing from the British public."

Note to editors: The 2011 census reported that 3.8 million people born abroad and resident in the UK arrived into England and Wales in the last ten years.

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Census Results: Comment by Sir Andrew Green

11 December, 2012

Following the release of today's Census results, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, commented: 

"This is the clear result of Labour’s mass immigration policy which brought nearly four million immigrants to England and Wales in ten years. Immigration on this scale is completely unacceptable to the vast majority of the public and is obviously unsustainable. Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the need to get immigration back under control so as to allow time for integration to occur."

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Is the fall in net immigration due to a fall in student numbers?

Immigration data

The latest net migration statistics to March 2012 show a significant fall in net migration to 183,000 - a reduction of 59,000 from the figure for year ending March 2011.  According to the ONS News release “this reduction in immigration was largely due to fewer people arriving to study….” In fact, the main reason was an increase in both British and non-EU emigration.    There was a fall in non EU immigration but only 12,000 of this came from a reduction of non-EU student immigration.

Visa data

Separately, student visa data was also published today and is more up to date as it includes the second and third quarters of 2012. This data on applications for student visas is broken down by the type of institution; Higher education, further education, language schools and independent schools [1].

In the year ending September 2012 the total number of applications for student visas was 211,000 - a fall of 74,000 from the previous year. However, it is important to segregate the different types of institution.

This overall fall was a result of applications to further education colleges falling from almost 100,000 in the whole year ending September 2011 to 33,000 in the following year. Applications to universities (“Higher Education Institutions”) were actually up by 1% at 155,800 compared with 154,500 for the previous year.

The fall in applications to colleges reflects the tightening of the system as well as measures to tackle bogus colleges and bogus students. To the extent that the fall is due to a reduction in bogus students, net migration will be unaffected in future years as those “students” would not have left in any case.

Commenting on these figures Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said “This is good news. It shows that the government can bring net migration down without damaging the valuable higher education sector.  The strident reaction of the universities to the government’s measures over the past year or two has done nothing to promote Britain’s reputation as a welcoming destination for study.

 [1] Certificates of Acceptance of Studies, table cs.07.q http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/immigration-asylum-research/immigration-tabs-q3-2012/before-entry1-q3-2012-tabs

Footnote: The IPS data is still useless for estimating net student immigration. These latest figures, taken at face value, would suggest that it was 157,000 in the year to Q1 2012.  This is because the survey still cannot distinguish between departing students and departing workers.  This deficiency is being corrected and the first estimate of net non EU student migration (for calendar 2012) will become available in August 2013.

Migration Statistics

This morning the ONS released the latest net migration statistics for the year ending March 2012, showing that net migration has fallen to 183,000 from 242,000 the previous year.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said:

"At last we can see some light at the end of the tunnel. We can now see the first effects of the government’s measures to reduce immigration. There is a distance to go but they are on the right track."

Immigration caps don’t hamper the economic recovery. Why pretend otherwise?

By Sir Andrew Green, Chairman, Migration Watch UK

The immigration lobby are getting desperately short of arguments to set against the huge costs of mass immigration.  The first body blow was a House of Lords report which “found no evidence…… that net migration generates significant economic benefits for the existing UK population.” (See abstract here).  This was followed by a report from the government’s own Migration Advisory Committee which pointed out that much of any benefit goes to the immigrants themselves. (See Paragraphs 3.6-3.13 here).  Then a study by the NIESR found that the contribution of the much vaunted East European migrants to GDP per head was expected to be “negligible” (See Exec Summary here), indeed negative in the long run.

So their latest ploy is to claim that immigration control is a barrier to the vital task of economic recovery.   You only have to glance at the facts to see that this also collapses.  There is no limit on senior staff transfers between international companies nor, of course, on any form of recruitment from the EEA - a pool of over 500 million people.   Tier 1, the route for self-starters, was effectively closed after evidence that a significant proportion ended up in unskilled roles such as shop assistants, security guards, and supermarket cashiers. (See here) Tier 2, for skilled workers sponsored by employers, was capped at 20,700 a year but in its first year, only about half that quota has been taken up. (See here) How is that for a killer blow?  Meanwhile, improved routes have been introduced for entrepreneurs and investors. (See here)  Given all this, it is hard to believe that some are questioning whether Britain is “open for business” – especially when we receive one and a half million business visitors a year.   Someone must be doing some business!

Nor should employers be our only concern.  Since 2000, the British labour market has expanded by just over 2 million, virtually all of whom were foreign born. (See here) Whatever the technical arguments, it is clear that, over the boom period up to 2008, British workers were not drawn into the active labour market as would have been desirable.  Obviously, immigration is not the only factor. There are issues of motivation, welfare provision, education and training but it does seem clear that, if employers are entirely free to bring in cheap, flexible and non-unionised labour, they are likely to do so – especially if they are tied to them by the work permit system.  For wider social reasons it is important that there should be some countervailing pressure on employers to train and employ British workers.  Two and a half million people unemployed is more than enough.

Those who are protesting the loudest should be clear about the kind of immigration policy that they advocate.  If they want a virtually open door they should say so and say how they would address the consequences.  Immigration at current levels will add five million to the UK population in the next fifteen years.  To accommodate the extra numbers we would have to build the equivalent of eight major cities – Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield, Bradford, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol.   We already have a major housing crisis to say nothing of an empty exchequer.   Need I say more?

 

Net Migration Figure for 2011

Commenting on today's net migration figure for 2011, Sir Andrew Green said :

“These figures are a disappointment. Net migration remains far too high. Today’s numbers underline the huge difficulty of getting immigration back under control after thirteen years of chaos. The government is on the right track and numbers will come down in future years. Meanwhile, the government must ensure that they pursue the national interest ahead of vested interests. They now need a blitz on bogus students and much tougher action on enforcement and removal.  For too many years we have had only a token effort at tackling illegal immigration.”

The Latest Net Migration Statistics

Commenting on the latest net migration statistics released by the ONS this morning Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: 'You cannot expect to repair 15 years of mismanagement in 15 months, but it is worrying news that net migration is still running at a quarter of a million a year. There is no sign of any reduction from the huge numbers that developed under Labour.

The problem is that non-EU migrants are simply not leaving. It is time the Lib Dems understood the extent of public concern, including among 75% of their own supporters. The coalition must now take tough measures to reduce this unacceptable scale of immigration.”

Note to Editors: Statistics released by the ONS this morning show that net migration remains at 252,000.

Foreign Nationals Occupy 1 in 5 of London’s Social Housing

Figures just obtained from the Office of National Statistics show that foreign national families live in over 350,000 council and housing association properties in the capital while British nationals occupy 1.5 million. That is just under 20% of the entire stock of social homes which are occupied by those who have not been here long enough to obtain British nationality or have not bothered to do so.

These figures add to the growing evidence that the official data on who is being given new social housing lets massively under records the number going to foreign nationals in London. If they were only getting 11% of new lets they could not possibly now have 20% of the entire stock.

Migration Watch UK showed two weeks ago that while official data indicated that at least 11% of new social housing lets in London were given to foreign nationals there were huge gaps in the data. In some London Boroughs over one third of new tenants had no nationality recorded while, in others, only about half of new lets were included in the official statistics. This new data on who is actually occupying the stock of social housing shows the missing data on new lets is hiding the fact that a much larger proportion of social housing lets are going to foreign nationals than we have been led to believe.

Frank Field MP has written to the housing Minister calling for a public inquiry into who is getting social housing and under what criteria.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch, said “It seems that being British counts for nothing in the allocation of social housing. We are not suggesting that anyone is “jumping the queue” but it is now clear that the result of a system based almost entirely on need has been to favour foreign nationals. This has been covered up for too long.  There must be an enquiry to get the facts straight.”

Notes to Editors:

1 Labour Force Survey looks at households across the UK. This includes data on Landlord type and nationality.

2 The Continuous Recording of Sales and Letting (CORE) is a national information source funded jointly by the Tenant Services Authority and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). It looks at new social housing lets.