IMMIGRANTS

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
 

Polish workers in Britain have sent home £23billion in the past seven years. Amounting to more than £3billion a year, this shows how much money has been transferred since the EU expanded to include former Eastern Bloc countries in 2004. Since then hundreds of thousands of Poles have flocked to Britain and, despite the recession, they are continuing to arrive in their thousands. The report by Poland’s statistics office revealed that last year migrant workers helped push up the total sent back home to some £3.7billion. The study also revealed that of the 390,000 Poles thought to be living in the UK around one in five, some 70,000, are thought to be unemployed.

It would mean British taxpayers are forking out some £4.5million a week in unemployment benefit for migrants. Since 2004 Poles have been free to work in the UK with few restrictions. The controversial decision was made despite other countries, such as Germany, imposing rigid controls for up to seven years. And in April the time limit on EU rules restricting migrant workers’ access to benefits expired, giving Poles exactly the same rights as British nationals. The study from the Central Statistical Office of Poland, the Polish equivalent of the Office for National Statistics, suggests Polish migrants are raising their aspirations.

In the early years they were content to do more menial work and happy to have any job, but the study found many are now shunning low-level employment and want jobs they feel are more fitting to their qualifications. Part of Britain’s attraction for Poles is better childcare facilities and more generous state aid than back home, the authors say. In 2004 a total of 75,000 Poles came to Britain, a figure which went up to 96,000 in 2007 but dropped off to 39,000 in 2009. In total the report estimates there are now nearly 400,000 Polish immigrants living in the UK, the equivalent of a city larger than Cardiff. In London alone the Polish immigrant population stands at 123,000.

The study acknowledges some 75% of those Poles living abroad have done so for more than a year. In addition, a significant proportion have already spent more than half a decade outside their homeland since 2004. Some, however, are choosing not to work and 18 per cent of those in Britain do not have a job, the equivalent of 70,200 people. Poland’s population now stands at approximately 36.8million, down from 38.2million in 2004. It is thought around two million Poles are living abroad, but experts say this may underestimate the true number. The study also suggested more than one million Poles who have left the country to live abroad will not return home, but make their life where they have settled.

Recent figures from the ONS suggested four out of five jobs created in the past year had gone to foreign nationals. They showed the number of foreign men and women in work soared by 334,000, to more than four million. In the same period, to the end of March this year, the number of British-born workers finding employment rose by only 77,000. The number of Eastern Europeans working here fell sharply during the recession. At the end of last year there were 472,000, down 30,000 from its peak. However in the past nine months some 110,000 Poles and other Eastern Europeans have found jobs in Britain, a 23% increase. (Source: Daily Mail, Jul/11)

Immigrants are being turned into British citizens at a rate of one every three minutes. Official statistics showed that 203,705 UK citizenships were handed to foreigners last year. The figure is 58% up on 2008 and the highest number since records began almost half a century ago. The number of newcomers from outside the EU granted the right to settle in the UK rose by 40% to 214,000 during the 12 months to the end of March. The official figures also showed that 503,000 immigrants arrived to settle in Britain during the 12 months to September 2009. The reduction, seen as the result of the economic downturn, was 9% down on the 555,000 who arrived in the previous year.

Immigration Minister Damian Green said, “These figures illustrate the scale of the immigration challenge facing the new Government. It is our duty to control immigration for the benefit of the UK and that is what I am determined to do. I believe that immigration has been far too high in recent years, which is why we will reduce net migration to the levels of the 1990s, to tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands. The public will see us tackle this issue head-on by introducing a wide range of measures including a limit on work permits, actions on marriage and an effective system of regulating the students who come here.”

A total of 361,000 people quit Britain during the same period, making net immigration 142,000, fewer than the 160,000 a year earlier but still enough to add another million to the population within seven years. Mr Green welcomed the drop in immigration last year, but added, “What is significant is that grants of settlement, the right to remain in this country, and grants of British citizenship have gone up hugely. It shows the long-term effect of the fact that the immigration system was out of control for so long under the previous Government. You would expect immigration to fall during a recession but the long-term population growth of this country is still going up very fast.” (Source: Daily Express, May/10)

A report from the London School of Economics has revealed the true costs of immigration into the UK and how it impacts on council tax payers. The report entitled ‘Population Mobility and Service Provision’ is a damning indictment of the present lunatic immigration system. The report states that immigrants are costing council tax payers at least £200 million a year. Costs for personal translators for immigrants are costing council tax payers at least a £1,000 per year per immigrant.

Council tax payers are also paying millions of pounds per year in ’destitution payments’ to illegal immigrants who have just arrived in the country and who are unable to claim benefits because of government rules that require them to follow the legal asylum process. The report details that schooling for the children of the UK is suffering and impacting adversely on the education of British children, that unbearable strain is being put on the housing and health systems, that social cohesion is being damaged by the influx of immigrants into the UK, that the council housing systems are in total crisis and that council taxes will have to rise vastly in coming years to cover the costs of the immigration crisis.

The report is based on official government figures as regards the estimates of numbers of immigrants entering the UK. When the Labour government said only 30,000 Eastern European immigrants would enter the country the real figure they later revealed was nearer 300,000. The actual numbers of immigrants in this report does not include the estimated 2-3 million illegal immigrants also in the country. The full report can be downloaded here (pdf) (Source: BNP, Feb/07)

More than 50,000 Eastern European migrants living in Britain are exploiting a loophole in the law to claim UK child benefit for children they have left behind. Migrant workers from new EU member states including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania, are signing up in droves for the cash, funded by British taxpayers.

In Poland, parents do not have an automatic right to state benefits for their children and even those payments which are available are strictly means-tested and very few people qualify. But under EU rules, Polish and other Eastern European parents working in Britain can leave their children at home and still qualify for UK money, £907.40 a year for a single child and £608.40 for each additional one.

At the current rate, even if they claim for only one child, the Polish applications alone will already have cost the taxpayer £45million this year. To successfully claim, the migrants must be registered to work in Britain. British Customs officials then check with authorities in their home countries to confirm they have children to support. In Poland, state agencies have been swamped by these checks from Britain. Requests for proof are arriving at a rate of more than 1,000 a week. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Aug/06)

At least 600,000 eastern Europeans have flooded into Britain, almost 25 times the Government's own prediction. And more than 40,000 of the migrants are managing to claim benefits worth tens of millions of pounds, including tax credits worth £5,200 a year to a young family. Home Office figures revealed almost 450,000 migrants from the former Eastern Bloc have registered to work here since the EU's controversial expansion in May 2004.

The 447,000 total does not even include partners, children or self-employed workers. The Home Office had predicted between 5,000 and 13,000 a year. The actual figure is 23 times higher. The influx shows no sign of slowing. There were almost 50,000 new arrivals in April, May and June2006. In 2005, 179,000 foreigners were given permanent settlement to live in the UK, an increase of 29%.

It takes the total number of overseas nationals granted permission to spend the rest of their lives here, and apply for a British passport, to more than one million since Labour came to power. The main beneficiaries were migrants from the Asian sub-continent, including India and Pakistan (83,740), and Africa (54,000). This has been the case every year. The main reasons are successful asylum claims, employment and joining family members.

In 2004, the UK was one of only three Governments not to restrict movement to nationals of the EU's eight new members, including Poland. Ministers said they would receive only limited benefits, but figures revealed payments are being made to a staggering 42,620 of those who have registered to work, almost one in ten. These include 27,280 child benefit payments, worth £17.45 a week for a first child and £11.70 for any others. The total bill, based on each claimant having an average two children, could be as much as £41million.

Tax credits, worth £1,320 a year for a single man on the minimum wage, and family tax credits, worth up to £5,000 for a migrant with a child, are being paid to 14,009 people. It would give a minimum bill of around £18million. The eastern Europeans are also in receipt of income support, Jobseekers' Allowance, pension credit and even 110 council houses. Others are staying in bed and breakfast accomodation, at taxpayers' expense.

The number in receipt of benefits has increased five-fold in the past year. During the first year after the former Eastern Bloc workers were allowed in, only 7,000 were receiving state handouts. One of the main reasons is that, after working in the UK for 12 months, a Government-imposed block on some benefits is lifted. Migrants are allowed to claim tax credits from day one, but more are now applying. The Home Office insists they are 'making few demands on our welfare system'.

The 447,000 figure for eastern Europeans includes only those who have applied to join the Home Office's worker registration scheme. Around 425,000 have been approved, though the rest are free to stay here and work anyway. The register does not include the self-employed. For example, only 835 childminders, 190 plumbers and 195 plasterers have signed-up. This is fewer than can be found in many London boroughs.

Migrationwatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said, "There is clearly a continuing massive flow of migrants from Eastern Europe. The case for placing restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians is now unanswerable." CBI director-general Richard Lambert said, "The UK has benefited greatly from the hard work of migrants from new accession countries. But it is only right that the UK takes the time to reflect on the earlier experiences and debates how and when to welcome the next phase of EU accession countries." (Source: Mail on Sunday, Aug/06)