Previous Press Releases
2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001December November October September August July June May April March February January
Press Releases for May 2004
May 25, 2004
The following has been issued today by Migrationwatch in response to a report by the National Audit Office and the latest asylum statistics.
NAO Report produces unexpected bombshell…
May 23, 2004
Migrationwatch comment on Sunday Times report of Government marketing document on asylum and immigration…
May 20, 2004
Government challenged over immigration to fill
'catering' vacancies…
May 10, 2004
Immigration now 60% of population growth…
Full Text of Releases : May 2004
The following has been issued today by Migrationwatch in response to a report by the National Audit Office and the latest asylum statistics. NAO Report produces unexpected bombshell…
For several years the Government has claimed that, by increasing legal means of immigration, they will reduce asylum claims.
Today's NAO report has studied the major source countries of asylum and has come to the conclusion that there is no statistical evidence
of this.
Commenting Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch said:
'This blows out of the water a key element of the Government's case
for the massive increase of immigration which they have generated.'
As regards the original allegations concerning asylum applicants from Romania he said this issue has been buried in much larger numbers. The study considered 11 countries which accounted for a drop of 29,000 in asylum applications.
'Romania was included but only accounted for less than 700 of the reduction, there was thus no prospect of events in Romania having a statistically significant effect.'
Commenting on the latest asylum statistics Sir Andrew said that the further fall is welcome but there has been no improvement in the removal of failed asylum seekers. Only one in five failed asylum seekers were removed last year.
'This is a very poor result for an asylum process that costs £2bn a year,' he said.Back to top
Migrationwatch comment on Sunday Times report of Government marketing document on asylum and immigration…
see www.sunday-times.co.uk) 'Spinners plan a makeover for migrants'
This is a depressing and cynical document. It illustrates once again the Government's obsession with spin. They clearly recognise they have lost the trust of the vast majority of the public - this is not surprising because they have completely failed to explain why current levels of immigration are necessary, what numbers we can expect in the future and why they seem incapable of getting immigration under control.
Back to top
Government challenged over immigration to fill 'catering' vacancies…
Claims that more immigrants are needed to help fill 60,000 catering jobs in London have been challenged after an analysis of employment statistics show that nearly four times that number of Londoners (230,000) are unemployed - 55% of whom are aged between 18 and 34.
At a press conference following the immigration 'summit' on April 6 Home Secretary David Blunkett said there was a need for immigrants to help fill 60,000 "hospitality and catering" vacancies in London alone.
But a study by independent think-tank Migrationwatch has shown that during the winter of 2003/4 some 230,000 in Greater London (roughly the area bounded by the M25) were unemployed [1]. Unemployment in London, at 6.9%, is already well above the national average of 4.7% [2] and 40% of the unemployed population in London are themselves migrants [3].
'It is very hard to see why even more immigration is required to fill these vacancies when we have such a large pool of people in London already unemployed,' said Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch.
'The catering and hospitality scheme is, in theory, for temporary admission only but there is absolutely no check on departure. This could well be just another example of immigration by the back door,' he said.
'These vacancies cannot all be for Cordon Bleu cooks. The rest will be relatively low paid and will therefore contribute little in taxes. Yet again the government are plucking statistics out of the air, and certainly out of context, to justify a policy of massive immigration that has little or no public support,`
NOTES
[1].Data provided by the Office for National Statistics for Migration Watch UK from the Labour Force Survey.
[2].Source ONS: Labour market statistics May 2004.
[3].As footnote 1.
Back to top
Immigration now 60% of population growth…
Immigration has accounted for almost two thirds of the increase in the UK population in the five years to 2002. Children born to immigrants after their arrival in the UK have not been counted as immigrants in this calculation - if they were the proportion would be higher.
An analysis by think-tank Migrationwatch of the recent detailed estimates of international migration for 2002 from the Office for National Statistics shows that net immigration in that period was 790,000 - an average of 158,000 each year.
'These statistics highlight just how large the scale of immigration into the UK has become in a few short years,' said Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch. 'It has taken place without - until very recently - any discussion or explanation of the wisdom of, or rationale behind, such a large scale influx in such a short time.'
At current levels immigration will, over the next 30 years, account for 85% of UK population growth - a much higher figure than the Government claimed when they issued their population projections in December.
At that time the Government said that three million - or just over 50% - of the projected population increase in the UK between 2002 and 2031 of 5.6 million would be due to immigration.
But Migrationwatch analysis has revealed that these figures understate the real position by a significant margin and, in fact, the true proportion should be 85%.
The latest ONS figures show that gross annual immigration passed the half million mark for the first time in 2002. The figure of 512,800 was an increase of 57% on the 326,000 people who arrived in 1997. They do not include people coming on temporary work permits to fill seasonal vacancies; an unknown number of whom are anticipated will remain in this country, or of course illegal immigration.
Third-world countries and regions are the principal contributors of net immigration into the UK accounting for net immigration of approximately 187,000 people (84%) out of the net 222,000 people arriving from countries and regions which provide net immigration to the UK.
In contrast the UK is a net exporter of people to the developed world -
with a net 69,000 people moving to the rest of the EU, Australasia and North America.
Sixty percent of net immigration in 2002 was to London. Two-thirds was to London and the South-East. The remaining net immigration was to the other England regions and to Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland were countries of net international emigration.
'The increased scale of immigration over just five years has been remarkable,' said Sir Andrew. 'It has already more than doubled and we have yet to see what effect the enlargement of the EU might have.
'The Government may hope it has 'neutralised' the issue following the Prime Minister's recent speech but he completely failed to deal with the central questions of why such levels are necessary and whether they are really in Britain's best long term interests.' said Sir Andrew.
Back to top