A selection of recent media reports
Stop being so generous to migrants: French plea to Britain after Dunkirk suburb is over-run The mayor of a French village invaded by migrants has called on Britain to halt handouts to deter them from crossing the Channel. Daily Mail (19-Nov-2010)
Birkenhead MP Frank Fields five point plan to cut immigration A FIVE-POINT plan to reduce the level of immigration into Britain was put... Wirralnews.co.uk (Liverpool Echo) (19-Nov-2010)
Foreign student must take brunt in immigration cuts, says adviser Foreign students from outside the EU will have to be slashed by more than half if.. Telegraph.co.uk (By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor) (19-Nov-2010)
Nurse locked in car boot claims abductor shown more respect A nurse who spent 10 days locked in a car boot has claimed her abductor has been... Herald Scotland (BRIAN DONNELLY) (19-Nov-2010)
IMMIGRATION CAP IS RIGHT EVER since the Government introduced a cap on immigration from outside the.. Express.co.uk (19-Nov-2010)
Pastor admits immigration fraud in UK By Kat Baldwyn, A Birmingham pastor forged documents in a bid to help foreign... Zim Diaspora (Editor) (19-Nov-2010)
FLOODS OF FOREIGN STUDENTS MUST BE HALTED, SAY EXPERTS THE number of foreign students coming to Britain from outside the EU must be... Express.co.uk (By Martyn Brown) (19-Nov-2010)
100S OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE ON THE RUN MORE than 100 failed asylum seekers have gone missing after being ordered... Daily Star (Craig Woodhouse) (19-Nov-2010)
Student visas 'must be slashed by half' to meet immigration target The number of students coming to Britain from outside the European Union will need. The Scotsman (By Russell Jackson) (19-Nov-2010)
Call for cut in migrant numbers The number of migrant workers coming to Britain from outside the EU should be cut.. Yahoo! News UK & Ireland (18-Nov-2010)
UK News: Clean-up under way in flood-hit Cornwall A MAJOR clean-up was under way today as flood-battered Cornwall recovered from... News.Scotsman.com (18-Nov-2010)
How Britain benefits from a migration cut To listen to the Liberal Democrat half of the Coalition, imposing any kind of... Mail Online (Daily Mail Comment) (18-Nov-2010)
Birmingham pastor admits immigration fraud Pastor forgery scam shame A Birmingham pastor forged documents in a bid to help... IC Birmingham (18-Nov-2010)
Morning press briefing from 18 November 2010 Press briefing from the Prime Ministers spokesperson on: flood defence funding,... Number10.gov.uk (18-Nov-2010)
The government's immigration sums don't add up | Sarah Mulley | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Today's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) report has, over 300 pages of... Guardian Unlimited - The Observer (Sarah Mulley) (18-Nov-2010)
Pastor forgery scam shame A Birmingham pastor forged documents in a bid to help foreign nationals enter the.. Birmingham Post (By Kat Baldwyn) (18-Nov-2010)
Failed asylum seekers: 100 have gone missing in six months At least 100 failed asylum seekers have gone missing after being ordered to. Mail Online (18-Nov-2010)
Government must make Intra Company Transfers cost more if it doesn't want to cap them I was at the launch of the Migration Advisory Committee's (MAC) report into the... IT, Technology & Computing Blogs - ComputerWeekly.com (Karl Flinders) (18-Nov-2010)
Interview with Professor David Metcalf, of the Migration Advisory Committee The number of migrant workers coming to Britain from outside the EU should be cut.. The Oxford Times (© Press Association 2010 ») (18-Nov-2010)
CALL TO HALVE STUDENT VISA NUMBERS The number of students coming to Britain from outside the EU will need to be more.. Express.co.uk (18-Nov-2010)
Rebuttal of Briefing by the Mayor of London
Back Bench Debate on Immigration The Scale of immigration 17 November, 2010
The GLA Briefing claims (paragraph 4) that "net international migration in 2009 was at its lowest level since mid 1995 which is comparable to the government’s target". This is quite wrong. As the paper recognises elsewhere, net international migration in 2009 is estimated at 196,000; in 1995 it was 76,000. The central point is that the average over the past five years has been 200,000 while the ONS projection for 70 million in 20 years is based on the assumption that net migration will continue at 180,000.
The economic impact
The GLA claim that, “If numbers fall in line with government targets… there would be a negative impact of about -1% on GDP”. This is based on a Financial Times article of 18 June which is faulty for reasons fully explained in a Migrationwatch press release of 19 July. Briefly, their calculation assumed that, over a 5 year period, the growth of output would be entirely constrained by the growth of the population over the age of 16. However, with 2.5 million unemployed a shortage of labour is not the main constraint on output.
Furthermore, this claim ignores the point that what matters, as the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs pointed out, is GDP per head. There is nothing in the GLA briefing to suggest that this might fall.
Students
The corrected briefing claims that "80% of overseas students leave the UK within 5 years of entering". In fact, the Home Office research to which they were referring found that 80% were "no longer in the system". That is not to say that they had left the country. There are still no records of departure. In fact, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that overstaying students are a significant part of net migration.
To watch the debate on 18 November click here
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