DAILY EXPRESS: THE scale of Britain’s immigration crisis was laid bare last night with startling figures showing the number of migrants here rocketed by more than a million in four years.
Between 2004 and 2007 the number of immigrants in the UK grew from 5.2 million to 6.3 million – an increase of 21 per cent.
The increase is equivalent to the population of Birmingham. Some parts of the UK saw their foreign-born populations increase by a third after millions of eastern Europeans got the right to live and work here when their countries joined the EU in 2004.
In London, traditionally a magnet for immigrants, one in three residents was born abroad by 2007 with the boroughs of Westminster and Brent having more foreign-born people than Britons.
At the same time some areas, including Birmingham, Surrey and Sheffield, have seen a sharp decline in their British-born populations.
Many of the migrants were attracted by what was then a strong economy and the easy availability of low-skilled jobs that Britons did not want to take.
But with the economic downturn and rising unemployment, there are fears that the presence of large migrant communities could lead to rising hostility and an increase in support for far-right political groups.
The unexpected figures from the Office for National Statistics led to renewed demands for the Government to get a grip on a crisis that is threatening to cause serious unrest in Britain.
Critics claimed they provided fresh evidence of Labour’s failure to control Britain’s borders. Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said:
“This is a huge rise in just four years. It is simply impossible for our country to absorb new arrivals at anything like this rate.” >>> By Alison Little and Gabriel Milland | Friday, March 27, 2009
