Migration 'must be curbed'
LABOUR’S claim that a cap on immigration would not be effective was left in tatters last night.
The Government insists that most migrants are from the EU and enjoy free movement, and so it cannot control numbers.
But a report shows that it can – because most of those arriving in Britain in the future will actually be from outside Europe.
The massive inflow of Eastern Europeans will be over within three years and go into reverse, according to the study from Migrationwatch UK. That means the main impact on our population growth will then be from migrants from the rest of the world – a flow the Government could control with an annual limit.
The report says: “Most immigration is from non EU countries; these are countries from which immigration could be restricted if it were Government policy to do so.”
Migrationwatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said yesterday: “The impression is being carefully fostered that, since numbers from Eastern Europe are now declining, the public need no longer have concerns about UK immigration levels.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, East Europeans have never accounted for more than a third of the total.”
He said the huge influx of immigrants “cannot be allowed to continue unchecked”.
Almost 900,000 Eastern Europeans have come to work in Britain since the EU expanded in 2004, Home Office figures showed last week. But arrivals from the so-called A8 nations, which joined the Union that year, appear to be tailing off. Levels in the second quarter of this year are at their lowest since the start date.
The Migrationwatch study predicts numbers will continue to fall off while those returning home will increase. Inflows are expected to average at around 75,000 to 80,000 a year from 2011 onwards while outflows will be around 100,000, leaving a net outflow of up to 25,000.
The exodus is due to factors including improving economies at home and the fact that those EU members – including Germany and France – that have not yet fully opened their labour market will have to do so by 2011 at the latest.
Migrationwatch predicts 65 per cent of Eastern European migrants will leave Britain within a decade while 35 per cent will settle.
The Home Office has insisted that immigration from outside the EU was no more than 52 per cent and that therefore an annual limit would have little effect. But in February, the Government’s own statisticians backed a report by Migrationwatch that found 68 per cent of foreigners arriving were from outside the EU.
Cannot be allowed to continue unchecked
Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: “This is more evidence why the Government should answer our calls to have an annual limit on non-EU immigration. It also undermines Government rhetoric that immigration cannot be controlled because it is mainly from the EU.”
Sir Andrew also said the Government’s flagship points-based system will not limit migration “and is not even intended to do so”.
But the Home Office spokesman insisted it “covers close to six in 10 of all migrants – more than a cap”.
