Migrationwatch welcomes the government's statement today on its intention to limit immigration in line with its election promise. Special interest groups must understand the wider issues at stake and recognise the need to deal with immigration because of the large part it is playing in propelling our population to an unsustainable 70 million with the attendant pressures this will put on public services, our infrastructure, and of course the effect on community cohesion. Said Migrationwatch spokesman Alp Mehmet: 'The Home Secretary is to be applauded. It is now for her to show she has the will and the courage to continue as she has started. I believe she has both.' Some press reports have implied that the Office for Budget Responsibility has come up with a revised estimate of net immigration. It has not. It has chosen to adopt an estimate over the next five years that is close to the low migration scenario of theONS. This produces a conservative estimate of the increase in the labour force. A reduction in immigration is always associated with a recession but, over the past three recessions it has bounced back in the medium term to its trend growth. In any case, it is not total GDP that matters but GDP per head, as the House of Lords Economic Committee pointed out in their ground breaking report of April 2008. As they put it, 'Overall GDP, which the government has persistently emphasised, is an irrelevant and misleading criterion for assessing the economic impacts of immigration on the UK'. Nor should it be assumed that all immigrants add to the labour force. Most immigrants do not enter as labour migrants; a significant proportion will be dependants and others who are economically inactive. Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch, said ‘If only life were so simple. In fact, the immigration lobby has been a little too quick to jump on this aspect of the report which is no more than a short term and conservative assumption that the OBR have chosen to make.’ Analysis of the latest immigration statistics by think-tank Migrationwatch (See Annex A in the full press release) has revealed what Labour were anxious to conceal during the election campaign, namely that their so called "tough" Points Based System (PBS) has actually led to an increase in immigration. For several months, the previous government declined to answer Parliamentary questions on the subject. They claimed that the PBS would admit only those that the British economy needed. However, analysis now reveals that economic migration in 2009 was up by about 20% compared to 2007, the year before the introduction of the PBS for non-EU workers. This took place despite the deepest recession for a generation having led to unemployment of 2.5 million. The number of students, also part of the PBS, increased by 30% in 2009 compared to 2008 before the system applied to students. Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch said: ‘This is Labour's guilty secret. When they talked about immigration at all before and during the election campaign, they claimed that they were getting it under control with their tough new system. The truth was quite different. They have left an immigration system in chaos and the coalition government with a huge mountain to climb in order to fulfil the Prime Minister’s election promise, re-affirmed on 20 May, that net immigration would be brought down from the present level of 160,000 to tens of thousands as in the 1980s and early 1990s.’
Press Releases
Migrationwatch media comment on immigration cap announcement
June 28, 2010Migrationwatch comment on OBR Report on Immigration
June 15, 2010Labour's "Tough" Points Based System Actually Increased Immigration
June 3, 2010
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
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