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Press Releases for September 2005
September 25, 2005
Transnational marriage a 'root cause' of poor integration says report
September 21, 2005
Numbers are at heart of immigration debate
September 9, 2005
Migration study 'misses point' - Comments by Sir Andrew Green about the IPPR Report.
September 1, 2005
Migrationwatch Successes
September 1, 2005
Reference List of Press Releases September 2004 - August 2005
September 1, 2005
Immigrants add over a million to our population in seven years
Full Text of Releases : September 2005
September 25, 2005
Transnational marriage a 'root cause' of poor integration says report
The problems of integrating immigrant communities - so graphically described in the last few days by Commission for Racial Equality chairman, Trevor Phillips - will only get worse if action is not taken soon to severely curtail transnational marriages in the UK, says a report out today.
Such marriages make a major contribution to the formation of the ‘ghettos’ described by Mr Phillips and set back integration by a generation says think-tank Migrationwatch in a major paper on the subject. (Read report)
‘If Mr Phillips’ warning that we are ‘sleepwalking into racial segregation’ is not to be realised we must face up to an issue that is one of the root causes of this problem,’ said Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch. ‘He quoted the East African Asians as an example of successful integration. Precisely so. Not only were they themselves well educated but there was no subsequent flow of uneducated spouses. His example therefore illustrates our point.’
The Migrationwatch report says that the flow of spouses and fiancé(e)s from the Indian Sub Continent (ISC) doubled between 1996 and 2001. Now nearly half of ethnic Indian and three quarters of ethnic Pakistani and Bangladeshi children aged 0-4 have a mother born in her country of origin. In Bradford 30% of all children are born to foreign mothers; in Tower Hamlets the figure is 68%. And the Pakistani population of Manchester, Birmingham and Bradford increased by about 50% between 1991 and 2001.
Said Sir Andrew: ‘It is now essential that immigration policy should discourage international arranged marriage which has long been simply a means of avoiding immigration controls. With a British Asian community that includes two million of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent, it is now completely unnecssary. The present regulations should be tightened and a “family connection test” should be introduced, on the lines of that in force in Denmark.
He said Migrationwatch was proposing that where a UK resident wished to marry a spouse from the country in which he or she (or either parent) was born, entry clearance to Britain should not be granted until both parties had reached the age of 24. The test would not apply to citizens of the EU who have a treaty right of entry nor to citizens of countries whose primary official language is English and who thus do not pose an integration problem.
'We have had a clear wake up call from the Chairman of the CRE. However he ducked what is obviously a key issue. Commonsense dictates that in the interests of all our communities action should now be taken on transnational marriages,’ he said.
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September 21, 2005
Numbers are at heart of immigration debate
The assumption that immigration at its current unprecedented level is somehow ‘inevitable’ has been challenged by think tank Migrationwatch in a response (Read report) to the recent report from the IPPR , ‘Beyond Black and White.’
In part the IPPR report said that “… there is the growing realisation that immigration is set to continue, as the UK continues to require the skills that immigrants bring, in order to remain competitive in a global economy. This realisation underpins the move to a managed migration policy.”
‘The IPPR report contained very useful data which allowed us to see in detail the enormous changes taking place in our towns and cities as well as to compare the economic contribution of various groups,’ said Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch.
‘But the clear assumption was that immigration will continue at present levels – the highest in our history - and that we are somehow powerless to stop it. This is clearly nonsense and is certainly not what the vast majority of the British people believe or want.
‘We have, in theory, “managed migration” now, but as everyone knows, the present system leaks like a sieve.’
Sir Andrew said that foreign immigration had quadrupled since 1990. Deliberate government policy (for example over work permits and family formation) had allowed immigration to increase dramatically. Immigration now accounted for 84% of future population growth and the outflow of Londoners had doubled in the past five years to over 100,000 a year.
‘The Minister of Immigration referred recently to “ the same tired old nonsense about numbers” when anyone can see that numbers are at the heart of the debate. That is why 80% of the public believe that laws on immigration should be much tougher.
‘It is high time that the government dropped their spin and dealt with the legitimate concerns of the vast majority of the public regarding the present scale of immigration,' he said.
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September 9, 2005
Migration study 'misses point' - Comments by Sir Andrew Green about the IPPR Report.
7 September 2005
Introduction by BBC News web site -
A report from the IPPR think tank shows 7.53% of people living in Britain were born overseas. However, pressure group Migration Watch is critical of the report, as its chairman explains. |
This report is full of interesting detail - and empty of serious content. In fact, it completely misses the point. In almost its first sentence it claims that there is "a growing realisation that immigration is set to continue."
We entirely disagree. We believe that there is a growing realisation that immigration simply cannot continue at the present levels.
What the report fails to bring out is the massive increase in immigration in recent years and its consequences.
The flow of immigrants has trebled under the present government.
An extra one million immigrants have arrived since they came to power. And immigration will add five million to our population the next 30 years.
This amounts to 84% of our population growth and is the equivalent of five times the population of Birmingham.
This is not "scaremongering". It is the government's own population projection.
'Real issue'
So the real issue is not where our five million immigrants have come from, nor where they happen to be now.
It is time for a fundamental rethink on the back of an open and honest debate
The real question is whether we need another five million people on this island, adding to a population which is already at record levels.
We think that this is an extremely bad idea for three main reasons.
The first is integration. The reality is that we now face a crisis in community relations. We simply cannot integrate people at the present pace.
A recent paper delivered to the Royal Geographical Society reported that a number of British cities are now as ghettoised as American cities.
The general public would be amazed if they realised that foreign immigration is now running at nearly a quarter of a million a year - and those are just the ones we know about.
Secondly, England is already heavily overcrowded. It is second only to Holland as the most crowded country in Europe.
'Democracy' question
Yet we will need an extra one million houses in the next 20 years just for immigration. Where are we going to put them?
Finally, there is the key question of democracy. The public are deeply opposed to this policy; 70%, including, interestingly, 60% of Asians, feel that there are too many immigrants coming to Britain.
The government are riding roughshod over us. "Managed migration" is simply a smokescreen for a failed policy.
Talk of economic benefits is viewed with deep scepticism, and rightly so. All major studies - in the US, Canada and Holland - have shown that the benefit to the host community is minimal. In Britain it would be about £25 per head per year.
The social effects are much more significant and, at present levels, are of widespread concern. It is time for a fundamental rethink on the back of an open and honest debate.
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4222362.stm
Published: 2005/09/07 12:40:03 GMT
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September 1, 2005
Migrationwatch Successes
Here is a list of some of the key points which Migrationwatch has inserted into the debate on immigration and asylum:
1 Impact on population growth
Migrationwatch were first to point out that the Government had failed to include the children of immigrants when they claimed that immigration accounted for only just over half of expected population growth. After a reference to the Statistics Commission, we obliged the Government to admit that 84% of projected population growth is a result of immigration. In other words immigration will add just over 5 million, or 5 times the population of Birmingham, to the population of the UK in the next 30 years.
2 Failed asylum seekers
Migrationwatch first calculated that the number of failed asylum seekers still in Britain was over ¼ million. The Government denied it until the National Audit Office report in July 2005 confirmed that the potential pool of failed asylum seekers was between 155,000 and 283,500 as at the end of May 2004. Even these numbers do not include dependants (for whom 20% should be added). It is thus clear that the Migrationwatch estimate was a cautious one. We were also the first to point out that only one in five failed asylum seekers is actually removed.
3 Illegal immigrants
Having denied for years that it was possible to make an estimate, the Government eventually admitted that there could be up to ½ million illegal immigrants in Britain. Migrationwatch pointed out that the estimate was four years out of date and that ¾ million would be a more accurate figure. The Government have not denied this.
4 Immigration from Eastern Europe
The Home Office paper in April 2003 claimed that the maximum net migration from the new Eastern European members of the EU would be 5,000 – 13,000 a year. Migrationwatch pointed out in a report in August 2003 that this calculation was deeply flawed. We said that even 40,000 would be a cautious estimate. Immigrants are now arriving at the rate of about 160,000 a year. We do not yet know how many are leaving but it is clear that the Government estimate was hopelessly wrong.
5 Impact on housing
Migrationwatch were first to point out that, over the next twenty years, one new household in three would be the result of immigration. In other words we would need to build one million homes, purely for immigrants between now and 2021.
6 HIV, TB etc
In a report dated 18 June 2003, Migrationwatch drew attention to the implications of current immigration policy for the spread of HIV / Aids, Hepatitis B and TB. In July 2004 we called for HIV screening of visitors. In December we pointed out that 90% of newly diagnosed heterosexual infection were thought to have been acquired overseas mostly in Africa. The Government took no action on HIV but have now introduced screening for TB for applicants from high incidence countries.
7 Refugee Convention
Migrationwatch were among the first to call for Britain’s withdrawal from the 1951 Refugee Convention which limits our ability to deal rapidly with asylum claimants whose claims are clearly unfounded. Withdrawal is now Conservative policy.
8 The Hospitality Sector
Migrationwatch strongly opposed the quota system for workers in the hospitality sector introduced by the present government. We particularly opposed the importation of workers from Bangladesh, given that one in four young Bangladeshis in Britain is unemployed. The Government have now dropped the scheme owing to extensive corruption in the applications and, as we had pointed out, the availability of workers from new members of the EU.
9 Working Holiday makers
The Government widened the scheme and weakened the conditions in August 2003. We pointed out that it was wide open to exploitation and the Government have now had to tighten it up.
10 Scotland
The Scottish Executive have been claiming that the population of Scotland is ageing and declining and have used this as a basis to call for more immigration. We have shown that the population is not declining and that immigration is no answer to an ageing population.
11 “White Flight” Migrationwatch were the first to point to the flow of people from inner-city areas in London, the West Midlands and North of England. We were also able to demonstrate a correlation between the outflow and the ethnicity of the Boroughs which people were leaving.
12 The pensions argument
For some time, the Home Office claimed that the immigration would help to pay our pensions. We have shown that any such effect is only temporary and has the disadvantage of adding very significantly to our population. The Home Office have now dropped this argument. It is not included, for example, in their latest attempt to justify large scale immigration (in their recent consultation paper on work permits).
13 The economic arguments
We have demonstrated that the government’s economic case for immigration relies on distorted statistics. Their claim that migrants make up 8% of the population but contribute 10% of GDP does not take into account dependent children of immigrants. Their claim that immigrants add 0.4% to trend growth does not take account of their addition to the population.
27 August 2005
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September 1, 2005
Reference List of Press Releases September 2004 - August 2005
| Sept 8: | Visits from accession countries |
| Sept 16: | Comment on PM’s article in The Times |
| Sept 22: | Overseas Marriage (report) |
| Oct 4: | Two million population increase per decade (report) |
| Oct 12: | Housing demand up by one million (report) |
| Oct 28: | Implications of EU Constitution (report) |
| Nov 1: | Foreign nurses (report) |
| Nov 4: | One million immigrants since 1997 |
| Nov 11: | Workers from Eastern Europe |
| Nov 16: | Q3 Asylum figures |
| Dec 2: | Call for HIV tests for immigration from Southern Africa (report) |
| Dec 13: | Housing demand |
| Jan 14: | Immigration: Economic arguments “a smokescreen” – two of the government’s key economic arguments challenged (report). |
| Jan 17: | Call for medical staff to be tested before recruitment overseas (report) |
| Feb 7: | Yougov opinion poll shows that 45% agree (21% strongly) that immigration will affect their vote (opinion poll) |
| Feb 10: | Annual outflow of Londoners has doubled in the last five years (report) |
| Feb 21: | Critique of government’s five year plan (report) |
| Feb 22: | Comment on asylum figures and East European immigration. |
| March 7: | Overview of economic arguments for immigration (report) |
| March 21: | Social impact of immigration - Nearly one in five born to a mother born overseas. Close to 50% in London (report). |
| March 22: | Response to Des Browne on population estimates |
| April 5: | Immigration numbers likely to be higher than predicted (report) |
| April 10: | Communities face profound change (report) |
| April 26: | Comment on CBI economic claims |
| May 1: | East European Immigrants and labour market (report) |
| May 2: | Assessment of party policies (report) |
| June 8: | House of Lords evidence (report) |
| June 27: | Scottish immigration (report) |
| Aug 1: | Illegal immigrants could be ¾ million (report) |
| Aug 23: | Visa pressure could compromise security (report) |
| Aug 31: | One million immigrants since 1997 (report) |
(reports can be found on the Briefing Paper page).
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September 1, 2005
Immigrants add over a million to our population in seven years
Immigration has added over one million to the population of the UK since 1997 says a new report out today. (Read Report)
Following the publication of the mid-year population estimates on 25 August, think-tank Migrationwatch UK has reviewed the flow of people to and from the UK so as to assess the true scale of immigration. Official Government figures were used in the calculations.
The report calculates that net immigration has added more than 1.2 million to our population in the past seven years, accounting for 81% of the total population growth in that period. This amounts to the population of Birmingham (977,000) and Nottingham (267,000) added together and is equivalent to an average growth in population due to immigration of 177,000 each year.
These figures do not include clandestine arrivals and some who overstay their visas. An allowance of 30,000 a year for these categories brings the rate of population increase through immigration to over 200,000 a year, or two million each decade.
‘The Government trumpet the recent fall in asylum numbers but other forms of immigration are now running at five times the level of asylum claims,’ said Migrationwatch Chairman Sir Andrew Green.
‘It is now self evident that the failure to integrate our immigrant communities has brought us to a crisis in community relations. With immigration on the present scale it is impossible to achieve effective integration, especially as some immigrants are highly concentrated in particular areas. In a recent BBC/MORI poll 23% of Muslims said that the area in which they lived did not feel like Britain any more because of immigration.
‘We have reached a milestone. It is now essential to reduce the scale of immigration if we are to have any hope of achieving a reasonably integrated society. This is now the broad approach in Denmark and Holland. It is late in the day in Britain but we must follow their example while there is still time to do so,’ he said.
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