Sunday, 17 February 2013





A selection of recent media reports

Migrants are crucial to London's success
Today's Home Office Migration Advisory Committee report on Britain's need for highly skilled immigrant labour shoul
London Evening Standard (15-Feb-2013)
Four face jail over marriage scam
Members of a solicitor's firm, including one man from Hertfordshire, are facing jail for their part in a £20 million fake mar
Milton Keynes Citizen (15-Feb-2013)
Cameron proposals for new EU immigrant rules would be 'big step', says Cable
It would be a "big step" to make immigrants from the EU apply for residents permits and regis
Telegraph.co.uk (15-Feb-2013)
Bulgarians and Romanians 'could leave farms for pubs'
Bulgarians and Romanians will turn up their noses at fruit picking jobs because the work is too hard, farm
Telegraph.co.uk (15-Feb-2013)


Press Articles

Reducing the ‘pull factor’ for Romanian and Bulgarian migrants
7 February, 2013
By Sir Andrew Green
Chairman of Migration Watch UK
The Spectator Coffee House Blog
Whisper it but the government have a fighting chance of reaching their immigration target. The main risk now is an inflow from Romania and Bulgaria when our labour market is fully opened to them next January. That is why the issue of child benefit is important; if we continue to pay it to children left at home it could greatly encourage such migration.
Opposition to the government’s immigration policy is now starting to dissipate. Much of it has come from special interest groups who stand to gain from unlimited immigration. Unfortunately for them, their raucous campaigns are colliding with the facts. It is hard to argue that business is suffering when there is no limit to the transfer of senior international staff, and when only about half of the work permits available for skilled staff have been taken up. Certainly, there are problems with the bureaucracy. That is inevitable when two or three million decisions are taken every year, but those difficulties should ameliorate over time. As for damage to our reputation as a centre for world business, much of that has been generated by the business lobby itself – no one else has talked about Britain being no longer open for business (despite the arrival of one and a half million business visitors a year).
Their latest ploy is to claim that the government will look for further restrictions on business when they fail to meet their immigration target.  With a government completely focused on growth, that is simply absurd. In any case, economic migration is no longer where the numbers are.
To read the full article please go to our Press Articles page.

Posted by Britannia Radio at 10:53