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Press Releases for June 2010
June 30, 2010
Migrationwatch media comment on immigration cap announcement
June 15, 2010
Migrationwatch Comment on OBR Report on Immigration
June 3, 2010
Labour's "Tough" Points Based System Actually Increased Immigration
June 1, 2010
Immigration Issue Might Have Swung The Election
Full Text of Releases : June 2010
Migrationwatch media comment on immigration cap announcement
Migrationwatch welcomes the government's statement today on its intention to limit immigration in line with its election promise.
Special interest groups must understand the wider issues at stake and recognise the need to deal with immigration because of the large part it is playing in propelling our population to an unsustainable 70 million with the attendant pressures this will put on public services, our infrastructure, and of course the effect on community cohesion.
Said Migrationwatch spokesman Alp Mehmet: 'The Home Secretary is to be applauded. It is now for her to show she has the will and the courage to continue as she has started. I believe she has both.'
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Migrationwatch Comment on OBR Report on Immigration
Some press reports have implied that the Office for Budget Responsibility has come up with a revised estimate of net immigration. It has not. It has chosen to adopt an estimate over the next five years that is close to the low migration scenario of the ONS. This produces a conservative estimate of the increase in the labour force.
A reduction in immigration is always associated with a recession but, over the past three recessions it has bounced back in the medium term to its trend growth. In any case, it is not total GDP that matters but GDP per head, as the House of Lords Economic Committee pointed out in their ground breaking report of April 2008. As they put it, 'Overall GDP, which the government has persistently emphasised, is an irrelevant and misleading criterion for assessing the economic impacts of immigration on the UK'.
Nor should it be assumed that all immigrants add to the labour force. Most immigrants do not enter as labour migrants; a significant proportion will be dependants and others who are economically inactive.
Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch, said ‘If only life were so simple. In fact, the immigration lobby has been a little too quick to jump on this aspect of the report which is no more than a short term and conservative assumption that the OBR have chosen to make.’
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Labour's "Tough" Points Based System Actually Increased Immigration
Analysis of the latest immigration statistics by think-tank Migrationwatch (see Annex below) has revealed what Labour were anxious to conceal during the election campaign, namely that their so called "tough" Points Based System (PBS) has actually led to an increase in immigration.
For several months, the previous government declined to answer Parliamentary questions on the subject. They claimed that the PBS would admit only those that the British economy needed.
However, analysis now reveals that economic migration in 2009 was up by about 20% compared to 2007, the year before the introduction of the PBS for non-EU workers. This took place despite the deepest recession for a generation having led to unemployment of 2.5 million.
The number of students, also part of the PBS, increased by 30% in 2009 compared to 2008 before the system applied to students.
Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch said: ‘This is Labour's guilty secret. When they talked about immigration at all before and during the election campaign, they claimed that they were getting it under control with their tough new system. The truth was quite different. They have left an immigration system in chaos and the coalition government with a huge mountain to climb in order to fulfil the Prime Minister’s election promise, re-affirmed on 20 May, that net immigration would be brought down from the present level of 160,000 to tens of thousands as in the 1980s and early 1990s.’
Annex A
Work Permits Leading to Settlement 2007 - 2009
| Entry Clearance [1] | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| Tier 1 (and equivalents) | 10,055 | 15,515 | 18,785 |
| Tier 2 (and equivalents) | 68,355 | 59,115 | 36,490 |
| 78,410 | 74,630 | 55,275 | |
| In country extensions [2] | |||
| Tier 1 | - | 42,710 | 65,925 |
| Tier 2 | - | 55 | 20,145 |
| Work Permits | 44,685 | 40,890 | 7,290 |
| 44,685 | 83,655 | 93,360 | |
| TOTAL | 122,095 | 158,285 | 148,635 |
| Dependants (Tiers 1 and 2)[3] | 36,440 | 30,260 | 42,005 |
| GRAND TOTAL | 159,535 | 188,545 | 190,640(+20%) |
| Students [4] | 223,545 | 208,800 | 273,445(+30%) |
Notes:
1 Control of Immigration: Quarterly Statistical Summary UK Jan-Mar 2010, page 33 Table 1.1
2 Ibid page 47 Table 4.1
3 Ibid page 34 Table 1.1 continued
4 Ibid page 33 Table 1.1
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Immigration Issue Might Have Swung The Election
A tougher stance on immigration from the political parties could have changed the result of the General Election, a new opinion poll has revealed.
The poll, by YouGov for think tank Migrationwatch, shows that the Conservatives might have won an outright majority if they had adopted 'a stronger stance on controlling immigration.'
54% who selected Conservatives as their second voting preference listed a stronger stance on immigration as one of up to three policies that the Conservatives would have needed to promise to adopt in order for them to change their vote.
This equates to 5% of all GB adults.
The top three issues selected from the list provided were 'A stronger stance on controlling immigration' (54%), 'Increasing the state pension' (32%) and 'Withdrawal from the European Union' (30%). 13% said nothing would have made them actually switch their vote.
For the Lib Dems the survey showed that 42% of those who selected Lib Dems as their second voting preference listed a stronger stance on controlling immigration as one of up to three policies that the Lib Dems would have needed to promise to introduce in order for them to change their vote.
This equates to 10% of all GB adults.
The top three issues selected from the list provided were 'A stronger stance on controlling immigration' (42%), 'Increasing the state pension' (28%)an d 'Scrapping prescription charges' (18%). 20% said nothing would have made them actually switch their vote.
'It is clear from these figures, as well as the recent comments from the contenders for the Labour leadership, that immigration was, after the economy, the foremost concern for the vast majority of voters and yet none of the parties properly addressed it,' said Sir Andrew Green, Migrationwatch chairman.
'Had the parties listened to the public we might have a very different political landscape. The new government will have the public behind them in taking serious measures to address mass immigration. What is more, they will be held to account if they fail to do so,' he said.
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