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Press Releases for October 2009
IMMIGRANT POPULATION HAS INCREASED BY MORE THAN TWO MILLION IN EIGHT YEARS
Immigrants have almost doubled under Labour
Full Text of Releases : October 2009
IMMIGRANT POPULATION HAS INCREASED BY MORE THAN TWO MILLION IN EIGHT YEARS
Immigrants have almost doubled under Labour
The number of immigrants in the UK has increased by more than two million in the last eight years, says a Government sponsored report – that is nearly 700 a day - entirely consistent with the figure predicted by think tank Migrationwatch in 2002 which at the time was vilified by critics.
The report [1], by Oxford Economics, was quietly slipped out on the website of the Department for Communities and Local Government last month with no attention drawn to it.
‘The report has confirmed that what Migrationwatch has been saying for seven years has turned out to be pretty accurate,’ said Chairman Sir Andrew Green.
‘In 2002 we published a prediction that net migration into the UK would be two million every decade and probably more. That estimate included an allowance for 60,000 illegal immigrants per year.
The Oxford economic report states ‘recent evidence indicates that the 2001 figure of 4.2 million foreign born people in the UK could have grown further by more than two million in the last eight years’.
The report, which did not include any allowance for illegal immigration, gave a more precise figure for the increase of 2.3 million. Net foreign immigration in the period 1997 – 2000 was 0.7 million bringing the total under Labour to some 3 million.
‘In 2002 we said that "continued failure to get a grip of the situation will play into the hands of the far right who seek to exploit the situation for their own ends and to whom we are totally opposed" [2], said Sir Andrew.
‘It is ironic that this is the week in which the BNP will be represented on Question Time, and is an appalling indictment of the way the present Government has handled this sensitive issue. Not only have they totally failed to be honest with the British people but have treated their legitimate concerns with ill concealed contempt. The success of the BNP can be laid firmly at their door.’
When the Migrationwatch report was published in 2002 it was viciously attacked by the left. An editorial in The Independent [3] commented that “MigrationwatchUK is a nasty little outfit, and its duplicitous research should be treated with the gravest suspicion. The group deserves to fail….”. The Guardian’s “Analysis” column spoke of "a swamp of muddled thinking" and described the estimate as a “wild guess based on flawed analysis” [4]. Others accused Migrationwatch of scaremongering.
Said Sir Andrew: ‘Labour came to power in 1997 on the basis of a manifesto which made no reference to the highest levels of immigration in our history. On the contrary it said that “Every country must have firm control over immigration and Britain is no exception” [5]. In fact they have presided over uncontrolled mass immigration which now totals nearly three million over their period of office.
‘This has almost doubled the immigrant population of the UK in 12 years,’ he said.
‘Immigration is now the main driver of our population which will increase to 70 million in the next 20-25 years and will go on increasing rapidly thereafter unless firm action is taken. It is absolutely essential that the main parties now commit themselves to a very sharp cut in immigration so as to keep the population well below 70 million. As we have been saying for seven years, failure to grip this situation leaves the field wide open to the far right.’
1. Regional Economic Performance: A Migration Perspective. Economic Paper 4, 18 September, 2009. Page 12
http://www.communities.gove.uk/publications/communities/ecoperformancemigration4
2. http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/pressRelease/01-August-2002
3. The Independent 6 August, 2002.
4. The Guardian 7 August, 2002.
5. New Labour because Britain deserves better. Page 35.
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