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Press Releases for February 2005
February 22, 2005
MigrationWatch media response statement to asylum and East European workers figures issued today.
Asylum figures for 2004.
February 21, 2005
New proposals provide 'no upper limit' to immigration
February 10, 2005
'Knock on' effect of immigration on the regions
February 7, 2005
Poll shows immigration will be at heart of election campaign
Full Text of Releases : February 2005
February 22, 2005
MigrationWatch media response statement to asylum and East European workers figures issued today. Asylum figures for 2004.
Applications appear to have flattened out at about 10,000 a quarter, or 800 a week including dependants.
88% were refused both asylum and humanitarian protection at initial decision. Most appealed but nearly 80% of appeals were dismissed.
The timeliness of decisions is improving with nearly 2/3rds of cases settled within six months but removals are stuck at 1100 a month. Over the full year they are down 18% on 2003. This is largely because the government inflated the 2003 figures by removing East Europeans despite their impending membership of the EU.
Last year 50,000 claims were finally rejected but only 12,000 were removed; these numbers do not include dependants.
Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch UK said, 'The government have done what they can within the present framework but the problem is very far from resolved. (We are still second only to France and above the United States and Germany in the league table.) And the number of asylum seekers receiving support is, at 61,000, more than half the size of the British army.
‘The Prime Minister has pledged that monthly removals1 will exceed unfounded applications by the end of this year. Over the past two years, failed claims have run at about 70% of applications. If the inflow remains at about 40,000 a year there will be roughly 2,300 unfounded applications a month while removals are still less than half that. This looks like another promise likely to remain unfulfilled. The case for pulling out of the out dated international framework grows ever stronger.’
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February 21, 2005
New proposals provide 'no upper limit' to immigration
The proposals relating to work permits in the “Five year plan” recently announced by Home Secretary Charles Clarke further underline the government’s policy of 'no upper limit to migration,’ says a new report out today. (Read report)
The report - from think-tank Migrationwatch - has concluded that the plan contains a number of changes that should help the system be better managed and less open to abuse. However, much of what is being proposed is simply a ‘repackaging’ of existing schemes and will not affect the central issue of numbers.
‘Numbers are at the heart of this issue. These essentially administrative changes amount to no more than ‘window dressing,’ said Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch. ‘A points system is pointless without a ceiling on the total.
‘The Prime Minister says that people are fed up with the catalogue of abuses that have been exposed in the immigration system over the past few years. He is right, but the consistent evidence of the polls shows that the public are equally concerned with the scale of immigration and the lack of any consultation.'
Sir Andrew said that the case for such large numbers of migrant workers had simply never been made.
‘Access to cheap, flexible labour is of course good for employers. However it does not take into account the social costs and pressures on the nation’s infrastructure that result from the continuing rise in population. In housing, for example, the latest projections show that nearly one in three of the additional 189,000 households formed each year will be due to international migration.’
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February 10, 2005
'Knock on' effect of immigration on the regions
Record levels of international immigration into London and the South East have created a substantial ‘knock on’ effect across much of the southern half of England and in Wales, says a new paper out today from think tank Migrationwatch.
The report charts population movements between the regions of the UK over the past ten years and compares them with the massive growth in international immigration in that time. (Read Report)
The principal finding is that the white population of the UK and the ethnic minority population are becoming increasingly separated as a result of unprecedented changes in London's population.
There has been substantial migration from areas of high ethnic population in the capital to those parts of the country with predominately white populations. In the period 1993-2002, 606,000 more Londoners moved out of the city than came in from elsewhere in the UK. In the same period a net 726,000 immigrants arrived in London.
‘As international immigration into London and the South East has increased, so the outward migration of Londoners to other regions of the UK has accelerated. Indeed, both the inflow and the outflow have doubled in the last five years,’ said Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch. Of the outflow from London, almost 300,000 moved to the South West during the decade with a further 181,000 going to the East of England.
‘This has a number of effects. It places enormous stress on housing, education, health and social services in immigrant areas while at the same time the South-West, South-East and East Midlands are having to expand facilities rapidly to cater for the outflow from London. This, in turn, puts strains on their infrastructure, particularly housing, transport, education, health and the environment,’ he said. ‘A related issue is that many of the same people will continue to work in London leading to an even greater volume of commuting – estimated by the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit to increase by between 10 and 20% in the seven years to 2010.
‘It is self evident that the development of increasingly ‘parallel societies’ in some of our major cities, with self segregation between the various cultures, is an extremely undesirable development in terms of long term community relations. Our study reinforces some of the concerns expressed by the Cohesion Panel which reported to the government in July 2004 that “the pace of change (for a number of reasons) is simply too great in some areas at present.”
Said Sir Andrew: ‘The Panel’s Report was entitled “The End of Parallel Lives” but Government immigration policy (or the lack of it) is exacerbating the trend to parallel living. When the Government encouraged a huge rise in immigration they failed to consider the many consequences that would follow. As our report highlights, our society will be deeply affected by them for many years to come.’
(Please Note: None of the figures in this report make any allowance for illegal immigration, for which the Government has no figure, but is generally thought to run into many hundreds of thousands.)
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February 7, 2005
Poll shows immigration will be at heart of election campaign
A new survey has confirmed that a party’s policy on immigration will play a major role in deciding how people vote in the next general election.
A YouGov poll, for think tank Migrationwatch, taken last week shows that 45% agreed, including 21% who strongly agreed, that a party’s policy on immigration would influence their vote at the next general election. This view was consistently held amongst all age groups, social grades and regions, with slightly less support in Scotland and among the under 30s.
(see attached table).
When asked if they thought the Government ‘has immigration under control’ 77% either disagreed or strongly disagreed while 67% disagreed, including 38% who strongly disagreed, that the Government was listening to the public’s concerns.
When asked if they thought the Government was being ‘open and honest about the scale of immigration into Britain’ 74% disagreed, 41% strongly.
‘It is clear that a very large majority of people see immigration as an issue of real concern; they do not believe that it is being properly managed, nor do they believe what they are being told. Rather, they believe that the Government is simply not listening to them,’ said Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch.
The survey also reinforced the point that it was not the nationality or culture of immigrants that mainly concerned people, but the numbers, as 56% either agreed (37%) or strongly agreed (19%) that it is a good thing that Britain is a multicultural society.
There was however concern that the record level of immigration is contributing to a loss of Britain’s own culture with 61% agreeing (30% strongly) to the proposition.
There was little enthusiasm for further immigration. Only 19% agreed (4% strongly) that immigration is having a positive effect on the quality of life in Britain. 53% disagreed, including 27% strongly. In a related question 67% agreed (37% strongly) that too many immigrants were coming to Britain.
There were also fears about the pressure it was putting on our public services with 75% agreeing (40% strongly) that it was.
Very nearly two thirds rejected one of the government’s main justifications for immigration, namely their claim that immigrants are needed to do jobs that British people don’t want to do (65%, of which 32% strongly disagreed).
‘These results could hardly be clearer. They demonstrate conclusively that the Government’s policy of ignoring public concern and insinuating that anyone who raises the issue has a racist agenda has completely failed. They must now at last address the real issues. Whether they will be believed is another matter,’ said Sir Andrew.
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