Friday, 26 December 2008




Cross Party Group Aim for ‘Balanced Migration’
December, 19 2008
 

The first cross party group of parliamentarians to address how immigration into the UK can be brought back under control has been formed at Westminster. 

Headed by two distinguished former ministers, Frank Field, Labour, and Nicholas Soames, Conservative, it is the first time in British political history that parliamentarians from the two main parties have come together to stimulate public debate on the issue and put forward practical solutions. 

Under the ‘Balanced Migration’ banner they seek to persuade the Government that, over time, immigration should be brought substantially lower until it is close to the rate of emigration. This would stabilise the UK’s population and greatly reduce the pressures on public services and society.

Their approach, which has widespread public support, aims to ensure that as a nation we strike the right balance between creating a competitive economy with a flexible workforce, and relieving the burdens that uncontrolled immigration is placing upon our society.

Full details at www.balancedmigration.com


How Britain's new jobs have gone to Immigrants 
December 15, 2008
 

Nearly all the jobs created in the UK since 2001 have gone to immigrants - not British born workers. 

New research from think tank Migrationwatch – based on Government figures – shows that virtually all the extra 1.34 million jobs have now been filled by people from abroad, notably by the half a million workers who have come to the UK from Eastern Europe. 

Over the same period there has been no progress at all in getting British born unemployed workers into work; the number in employment did increase between 2001 and 2005 but there has since been a fall of nearly a quarter of a million. Meanwhile the number of East European (A8) employees rose by nearly half a million after they were given free access to our labour market in 2004. 

The study also shows that the number of East Europeans is starting to stabilise. Some are now leaving the UK but they are also continuing to arrive – although at a lower rate of about 13,000 a month. The Labour Force Survey shows that the number working in the UK has been stable at about 500,000 in the first three quarters of 2008. 

‘From an immigration point of view this means that migration from Eastern Europe is moving into balance as we have been predicting but, from the point of view of British born workers, the damage to their prospects has already been done - at a time when jobs of almost all kinds are at a premium,’ said Sir Andrew Green, Migrationwatch chairman. 

‘This must have been staring the government in the face for a long time yet even last month they described the East European migrants as “helping to fill gaps in the labour market”. Rather than come clean about the effect of massive immigration on the prospects of British born workers they have been spinning the statistics and camouflaging the true position with “tough talk” about immigration. 

‘Now that the cat is out of the bag they cannot possibly lift such restrictions as now exist on Romanian and Bulgarian workers.’

See Notes to Editors