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Press Releases for March 2005
March 22, 2005
MigrationWatch media response to item on 'Today' programme
March 21, 2005
The social impact of immigration
March 7, 2005
Nailing the myth of immigration's economic 'benefits'
Full Text of Releases : March 2005
March 22, 2005
MigrationWatch media response to item on 'Today' programme
On the Today programme on Radio Four on March 22 there was a discussion between Immigration Minister Des Browne MP and Peter Lilley MP on current immigration levels into the UK. Mr Lilley made the point that over the next 30 years, according to the Government’s own figures, the population of the UK would increase by 5 million as a result of immigration. Mr Browne said ‘I do not believe that these figures are going to materialise.’
Commenting on the Minister’s remarks Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch said: ‘It is astonishing that a Government minister should deny the validity of the Government’s own population projections.
‘Having seen the concern with which the present scale of immigration is viewed by all sections of the community it seems they now to want to deny the consequences of their actions as their full extent is becoming more widely understood.
‘A reduction seems most unlikely as Government assumptions about future immigration have consistently been well below the actual outturn. In fact even higher numbers are likely as the government’s policies contribute to continually rising immigration and they have themselves repeatedly said that they ‘see no upper limit’ to legal immigration.
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March 21, 2005
The social impact of immigration
The recent surge in immigration is accelerating change in the nature of communities, particularly in London and some Northern cities. This is revealed in figures issued by the Office of National Statistics and analysed by think-tank Migrationwatch. (Read report)
The statistics show that of the 621,000 births in the whole of the United Kingdom in 2003, nearly one in five (18.6%) were to mothers who were born outside the UK. Nearly half (47%) of the children born in Greater London were born to mothers born abroad.
For inner London the overall figure is 55% but in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Westminster this figure rose to 68%. For Outer London as a whole the figure is 41% - but in Brent the figure
was 65%.
Manchester, Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham, Cambridge, Forest Heath (Suffolk), Slough and Oxford recorded more than 30% of births to foreign-born mothers.
The very high proportion of births to foreign-born mothers in some English cities together with the outflow of city dwellers to the regions (see Migrationwatch report: “The effect of Immigration on the Regions”) explains the very rapid changes taking place in parts of our cities. It again raises the question of how satisfactory integration can be achieved in areas where British culture itself is already diminishing.
In the 10 years from 1993 to 2002 there was a net inflow of about 1.65 million foreign-born people to the UK and a net outflow of over 600,000 UK-born people. The majority of the resulting net increase in population through migration is in the younger age groups.
The high-levels of migration, and the young age profile of immigrants, are the main factors behind population growth in the UK. The latest release of ‘Population Trends’ from the ONS confirms that the population is expected to rise by 6.1 million by 2031. Of this, nearly 5.2 million (84%) will be attributable to net migration.
‘These changes are taking place without adequate debate - or consideration of the social, economic and cultural issues that such rapid change is bound to create,’ said Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch. ‘As opinion polls repeatedly tell us there is widespread concern at the rapid increase in immigration into the UK since 1997. Nearly 80% of the people in Britain, including 55% of the ethnic minority communities, want to see much tighter immigration controls. Yet the government makes no serious attempt to explain what purpose is served by immigration on this completely unprecedented scale,’ said Sir Andrew. The Government’s own Cohesion Panel reported in July 2004; “The pace of change (for a variety of reasons) is simply too great in some areas at present” - but the government has failed to respond. Indeed, the Home Secretary continues to say that there should be no limit.’
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March 7, 2005
Nailing the myth of immigration's economic 'benefits'
The government's claims for the economic benefit of the present large scale immigration are, at best, ‘disingenuous,’ says a new report
out today.
In a second paper examining the economic consequences of immigration think tank Migrationwatch says that it is important to nail once and for all the Prime Minister's favourite, but misleading, claim that immigrants contribute 0.5% to trend GDP and the other ‘dodgy’ statistics, such as that migrants contribute £2.5bn more to the Exchequer each year than they cost, which they use to support their case. (Read)
‘There is no doubt that immigrants do add to the size of our economy but they also add to our population. What the Government conveniently fails to mention is that they therefore generate considerable costs in terms of infrastructure – schools, hospitals, housing, transport etc,’ said Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch.
When these costs are added back, says the report, the true economic ‘benefit’ to the host population is likely to be at best + 0.1% of GDP, or about 14p a week per head each year, with the likely true benefit being no better than neutral – as all major studies overseas have also concluded.
‘It is extraordinary that this Government’ principal justification for the current immigration levels is built on such shaky foundations. They seem to believe that, if their supporters repeat false claims often enough then, despite the clear evidence to the contrary, people will believe them and be reassured,’ he said.
Sir Andrew said that, while the current record levels of immigration are attractive to employers because they provide an unlimited source of cheap labour, they are not only extremely expensive for the taxpayer but are also harmful for the less skilled indigenous workforce whose wages are held down and who are rendered more likely to be unemployed. Furthermore, to the extent that immigration holds down wages, it makes it more difficult to attract into the labour force the one million on incapacity benefit who would like to work.
The report also says that the claim that migrants contribute to pensions is dismissed by the UN as requiring “virtually impossible” rates of immigration. The House of Lords economic committee concurs.
Said Sir Andrew: ‘The Government is at best being disingenuous. No wonder 70% of the public simply do not believe what they say on immigration. A range of serious commentators have concluded that the issue cannot, and should not, be decided on economic grounds alone. The government should give the full economic picture and take account of the very strong public opinion on this matter.’
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