Previous Press Releases

2010  2009  2008  2007  2006  2005  2004  2003  2002  2001  
December  November  October  September  August  July  June  May  April  March  February  January  

Press Releases for April 2005

April 26, 2005
CBI chief challenged over immigrationand economic growth claims

April 15, 2005
Failed Asylum Seekers - the numbers

April 10, 2005
Communities face profound change through immigration

April 5, 2005
Immigration numbers likely to be higher than predicted

Full Text of Releases : April 2005

---

CBI chief challenged over immigrationand economic growth claims

Claims by the Director General of the CBI for the economic benefits of the current immigration levels have been described by independent think-tank Migrationwatch as ‘both inaccurate and misleading.’

Sir Digby Jones is reported to have claimed that “every 1% increase in immigration brings 1.5% increase in national wealth.”

This claim is taken from a Home Office study [1] which actually gives a range of 1.25 – 1.5 %. However the very next sentence of the study reads:

“It should be emphasised that this type of analysis must be regarded as suggestive at most.” (emphasis original)

In fact, much larger studies conducted in the United States, Canada and Holland have indicated that the benefit to the host community is extremely small. In the United States it was assessed at one tenth of one per cent of GDP per head per year. This would be the equivalent in Britain of £25 per head per year. The Dutch study concluded that the overall net gain in income of residents is likely to be small and may be even negative. The outcome of these studies is summarised in the attached report.

The Director General also claimed that 97% of immigrants found work straight away. Those who come on a work permit have to have a job before they come. As for immigrants generally, their composition can only be estimated from the settlement figures but the Migrationwatch estimate is that, in 2003, only 40 % came here for the purpose of work. The rest were relatives (30%), students (14%) and asylum seekers (14%). It is also the case that the foreign born workforce have had a consistently higher unemployment rate of 8.5% compared to 5.5 % for the British workforce [2].

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said ‘It is astonishing that the chief representative of British industry should peddle such thinly based, inaccurate and misleading information.’

NOTES:
[1] RDS occasional paper no. 67 page 6
[2] RDS occasional paper no 75 Figure 13.1 Unemployment rates 1990 – 2000.

Back to top

---

Failed Asylum Seekers - the numbers

The number of failed asylum seekers still in Britain could well exceed 250,000, says a new report out today. (Read report)

The government refuse to give their own figure, claiming (without producing evidence) that a significant number of failed asylum seekers go home of their own accord without informing the authorities.

The report, from think-tank Migrationwatch, makes an estimate based on the official figures for asylum decisions, the number known to have been removed and other factors. It concludes that the number still here is between 287,000 and 300,000 - roughly equivalent to the population of Newcastle.

The report also finds that over the period as a whole, only about one in four failed asylum seekers are actually removed.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch, said: ‘There is no point whatever in a £2 billion a year asylum process if three quarters of those rejected stay on illegally.’

Back to top

---

Communities face profound change through immigration

The impact of the highest levels of immigration in our history is not only being felt in London but is also having a profound effect on the make up of a number of other key British cities says a new report out today.
(Read report)

Independent think tank Migrationwatch published a paper in February which focused on the effects of population movements between London and other regions in the South half of England and Wales.[1] This showed that in the decade to 2002, 606,000 more Londoners moved out of the city than came in from elsewhere in the UK, while in the same period a net 726,000 immigrants arrived in the city.

Now the group has examined the situation in three other key areas of the country, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

It finds that the effects are broadly similar in these areas, although not on such a large scale. It concludes that the reasons are different, and in the case of the Midlands and North, one of the key factors driving the change - transcontinental arranged marriages - is not being tackled by the Government.

‘Our report demonstrates conclusively that it is now not only London which is seeing substantial numbers of people leaving to be replaced by immigrant populations, this is also occurring in several Northern cities,’ said Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch.

‘The reasons however are different,’ he said. ‘In London economic migration plays a larger part. In the North the main factor is so called ‘chain migration’ (whereby immigrants sponsor relatives or partners who then sponsor further relatives or partners). If we are to avoid exacerbating what the Government’s own Cohesion Panel has called ’parallel lives’, serious and urgent measures are needed.’

Sir Andrew said that while the Government claimed to have made proposals to deal with ‘chain migration’, they had failed to deal with the most important factor – transcontinental arranged marriages.

The report analysed the impact of chain migration on three English cities, Birmingham, Manchester and Bradford. It compared census data from 1991 and 2001 which showed that while the white population of these cities has significantly declined there has been a rapid increase in the Pakistani population of between 45.8% and 52.8%. The smaller Bangladeshi population has also seen large increases.

‘A major factor is the high rate of marriage to partners on the Indian Sub Continent which we estimate at 50-70%. This substantially increases the rate of household formation and, certainly in the first generation, the size of families. It can no longer be ignored,’ said Sir Andrew.

‘As the Government’s own Cohesion Panel put it in July 2004 when discussing the scale and pace of changes to communities generally: “… there are other concerns about the speed at which newcomers can be accommodated. Housing, education, health and other services all take time to expand. But people also take time to adjust. The identity of the host community will be challenged and they need sufficient time to come to terms with and accommodate incoming groups, regardless of their ethnic origin. The ‘pace of change’ (for a variety of reasons) is simply too great in some areas at present.”

‘Everyone recognises these are sensitive issues that need handling with care but it is no good putting forward proposals which fail to tackle the fundamental issue,’ he said.

NOTES
1. See www.migrationwatch.org News desk February 10, 2005 'Knock on' effect of immigration on the regions

Back to top

---

Immigration numbers likely to be higher than predicted

Government attempts to play down the scale of immigration into the UK by suggesting that the measures they have put in place will cause numbers to fall have been examined in a new study out today which shows that the opposite is more likely to be the case. (Read Report)

The Government’s own figures show that immigration will add five million – the equivalent of five times the population of Birmingham – to the population of England by 2031;one result of which will be to require 59,000 new homes to be built in England each year for the next 17 years for immigrants.

‘The government now recognise that there is mounting public concern at the impact of the highest immigration levels in British history and are starting to downplay their own official population projections,’ said Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch.

On the Today Programme on 22 March, the Minister for Immigration claimed that he did not expect the levels projected by government statisticians to be reached. Other proponents of immigration talk vaguely to the effect that numbers can fall as well as rise. The Migrationwatch paper examines the robustness of the official projection, looking in detail at the three principal long-term migration streams – asylum, family formation/reunion and work-related migration.

Asylum numbers are down 60% from their peak but this is counterbalanced by other forms of immigration resulting in an increase of 300% in total net immigration since1997.

The five million official projection is based on an assumption that net migration will average 130,000 a year. But in the most recent six years (up to 2003) for which there is data, it has averaged 157,000 a year.

In addition neither the actual figures nor the Government Actuary’s assumption allows for illegal immigration – the level of which is not known but which the government thinks runs into a total of several hundred thousands. Approximately 50,000 people a year are detected attempting to enter Britain illegally. Nobody knows how many succeed.

Nor is any account taken of future immigration from the new Eastern European members of the EU.

‘The conclusion is very clear. There is very little prospect of the numbers declining from the present massive levels in the foreseeable future. Indeed, the numbers are more likely to be higher rather than lower. This should be no surprise. The government have consistently underestimated the scale of immigration and have attacked those who challenge them. The public have now woken up to this which is why poll after poll shows that 75% of those polled no longer believe the government on immigration,’ said Sir Andrew.

Back to top

---