Britannia Radio

Migration Watch UK is supported
entirely by private donations.

If you share our concern about the future of
our society please join our supporters.

Donate

A selection of recent media reports

Get the all-clear: how will changes to the UK visa system affect you?
Thousands of Londoners will be affected by far-reaching changes to the UK visa system. Check y
TNT Magazine (07-Jul-2012)

Alex Massie: How immigration could revitalise Scotland
WHY can't the SNP consider creating a 'tartan card' and open the Border to talent from around the world,
Scotsman.com (07-Jul-2012)

IMMIGRATION COMMENT
BRITAIN should pay benefits to its own citizens when they move elsewhere in Europe. And it should pay benefits to the citizens of other cou
Express.co.uk (07-Jul-2012)

'BENEFIT TOURISTS' TO UK FACING NEW CRACKDOWN
AN end to the benefits tourism which sees migrants coming to Britain just for handouts is on the cards, the Government said
Express.co.uk (07-Jul-2012)

Hits and misses by Border Force staff
THE under-fire Border Force failed to reach some of its immigration queue targets at Heathrow airport last month, accordin
Scotsman.com (07-Jul-2012)

Pictured: Two young mothers who married Ghanaian illegal immigrants in sham weddings
Two young mothers who married illegal immigrants to keep them in Britain ha
Mail Online (05-Jul-2012)

UKBA officials 'planned to worsen health of mentally ill asylum seeker'
High court hears Border Agency staff hoped to put pressure on Iraqi man with paranoid schi
Guardian.co.uk (05-Jul-2012)

Government responds to 'no strategy' claims in missing migrants row
The Government today insisted it had clear strategy to identify and remove people who fail t
The Independent (05-Jul-2012)

Employers' shock as illegal immigrant found working at their seafood firm
THE UK Border Agency is holding a 47-year-old illegal immigrant found working at the
This is Devon (05-Jul-2012)

UK Border Agency failing to deal with 150,000 illegal migrants, says watchdog
At least 150,000 migrants refused leave to remain in Britain could be living in th
Telegraph.co.uk (05-Jul-2012)

Immigration backlog: New warning from watchdog
The UK Border Agency has no "clear strategy" for dealing with a group of more than 150,000 foreign nationals sta
BBC News UK (05-Jul-2012)

Briefing Papers

---

Economic impacts of immigration to the UK
6 July, 2012

1. Summary

• The impact of immigration into the UK on GDP per head – the key metric measuring prosperity - is essentially negligible (see section 3 below)
• Although labour market effects are notoriously difficult to estimate, there is tentative evidence to show that some immigration has had negative effect on the employment of UK-born workers (4.2). There is also substantial anecdotal evidence that workers in some sectors of the economy have suffered more than others from competition with migrant labour: the IT industry is one such sector (4.2)
• Since 1997 three-quarters of employment created in the UK economy has been taken by immigrants (4.4)
• On the impact of immigration on average wage levels, the evidence is again inconclusive (5.1), but there is a strong consensus of opinion that immigration has harmed the earnings of the most poorly-paid UK-born members of the labour force (5.2)
• The methodology used to demonstrate alleged positive fiscal impacts is flawed and partial (section 6); in any case calculations of the size of the fiscal impact, whether negative or positive, are extremely small.

To see the full Updated Version of this paper go to BP No 1.29

---

Immigration Mythology
4 July, 2012

1. Introduction

This paper outlines the many myths that are put forward by the mass immigration lobby in support of the current levels of immigration and dispels each myth in turn.

2. ‘Immigration provides great economic benefit’

For many years the government claimed that immigration added £6 billion a year to GDP. However, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, reporting in April 2008, said that what mattered was GDP per head. They concluded that:

“We have found no evidence for the argument, made by the government, business and many others, that net immigration generates significant economic benefits for the existing UK population”.

In January 2012 the Migration Advisory Committee went further. They said that even GDP per head exaggerated the benefit of immigration because:

“It is the immigrants themselves rather than the extant residents who are the main gainers”.

They suggested that the GDP of residents should be the main focus.

They recognised that the resident population would gain via any “dynamic effects” of skilled immigration on productivity and innovation – these “exist and may be large, but they are elusive to measure”.

To see the 14 Myths and Rebutals go to Briefing Paper 12.4

---

The Impact of Immigration on Maternity Services in England 
25 June, 2012

Summary

1 Between 2000 and 2010 births in England increased by over 114,000 – from 572,826 to 687,007. Immigration has been the key factor fuelling this increase: three quarters of the increase in births was to women born outside the UK. Overall, in 2010, over a quarter of all live births in England were to mothers born abroad. The proportion of such births has grown consistently every year in succession since 1990, doubling over the past decade – from approximately 92,000 in 2000 to almost 180,000 in 2010 – this is nearly 500 on average every day

2 Midwife numbers have not kept pace with the overall growth in numbers of births because governments before 2010 permitted high levels of net migration without making sure that maternity services received adequate staffing; consequently, there has been an acknowledged severe shortage of midwives for several years which has, in turn, led to concern about the quality of midwife services. Key indicators of pressures on maternity services and the resulting shortfall in midwives are shown in Table 1 of the complete Briefing Paper No 5.10.

---

Press Releases

---

20,000 Jobs go to Foreign Graduates
23 June, 2012

It is time that British Graduates were given priority for jobs. That is the conclusion of a study published today by Migration Watch UK.

Under the latest government scheme, all foreign graduates are allowed to stay on for six months to look for a job. This is supposed to attract “the brightest and the best”. It does nothing of the kind. In reality:

• It applies to non-EU graduates from over 600 institutions who may number about 100,000 a year
• It applies to all “graduates” whatever their subject or their grade
• There are some 600 degree awarding institutions in the UK (but only 120 are themselves universities)
• A one year course in the UK is sufficient to quality for this scheme
• The salary need only be £20,000 a year
• There is no limit on numbers
• And no test to see whether a British graduate is available.

The number of such work permits granted in 2011 was 40,000. The Home Office estimate, that in future, the number will be about 20,000 a year. Migration Watch recommend that:

1. The salary threshold be raised to £25,000
2. The jobs should be made available first to British graduates
3. Only those who have spent at least two years studying in the UK should be eligible.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said:

“Unemployment amongst recent British graduates is now about 20%. They already have to compete with EU graduates. It is inexcusable that tens of thousands of jobs should go to foreign graduates without any requirement to test the local market first. The higher education sector claims that the option of work attracts foreign students – probably so, but these institutions should be selling education, not immigration. British graduates emerging from universities with huge debts deserve a fair crack at any jobs that are available. The Foreign Secretary said at PM’s questions on 20 June that the government was making sure that all but the very best go home at the end of their studies. This is clearly not the case at present. The scheme should be severely restricted or, preferably, abolished. The effect would be to make this a genuinely temporary route, as Universities UK claim it to be ”.

=====================================

This site was selected for preservation by The British Library and is archivedregularly.

SEVEN KEY FACTS

Net immigration quadrupled to nearly 200,000 a year between 1997 and 2009. In 2010 it was 252,000. Over 3 million immigrants have arrived since 1997.

Migrants arrive almost
every minute; they leave at just over half that rate.

We must build a new home every seven minutes for new migrants.

England is already, with the Netherlands, the most crowded country in Europe

The population of the UK will grow by over 7 million to 70 million in the next 16 years, 5 million due to immigration - that is 5 times the population of Birmingham.

To keep the population 
of the UK, now 62.3 million, below 70 million, net immigration must be reduced to around 40,000 a year. It would then peak in mid century at about 68 million.

Revised April 2012