Immigration News

According to research released today, labour is responsible for the rise of immigration to the UK – not the economy.

According to the figures from the Nations Institute of Economic and Social Research, net migration from the A8 countries; Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia increased from 5,000 in 2009 to 39,000 in 2010.

The report also highlighted that three quarters of the annual 180,000 increase in net migration between 1992-1995 and 2004-2007 was due to policy changes and not economic or demographic factors.

19% of the rise was down to the UK being more open to migrants. 26% was due to the expansion of the EU in 2004 and 25% was put down to labour’s changes to the immigration policy.

The findings also suggest that migration from India and Pakistan, China and the A8 countries account for almost 94% of the increase in net migration to the UK since the 1990s.

London remains the most common destination for migrants with one third of new arrivals settling in the capital between 2004 and 2008.