Poles now live in EVERY local authority in Britain as a million eastern Europeans move to UK since 2004
By JAMES SLACK
The Daily Mail
30th April 2008
More than one million Eastern Europeans have arrived here in one of the world's “most concentrated migrations', Labour's favourite think-tank revealed yesterday.
The Institute for Public Policy Research said that, by last year, Polish workers were registered in every single local authority area in the UK.
Eastern European influx: A million immigrants have flooded the UK since 2004 in the desperate search for jobs – but half have now returned to their own countries
While many have returned home, Poles are the single largest foreign national group in Britain, overtaking those born in India.
They were the 13th largest group in early 2004, before Britain threw open its doors to EU enlargement.
The IPPR's report said: “This migration is likely to prove one of the most concentrated voluntary migrations in the world today.”
Ministers had estimated there would be only 13,000 arrivals each year after the EU admitted eight new members.
But the IPPR, which studied a range of official sources, said the true number to arrive seeking work since 2004 was 1,018,400.
The Left-leaning think-tank, which has influence over New Labour policy makers, said even areas which had not traditionally attracted migrants, such as Scotland and South-West England, had noticed a “significant” influx.
The IPPR estimates about half of the million arrivals have already left and suggests that if more Eastern Europeans return home or the number of arrivals drops off there may be a need to admit more migrants from outside the EU.
But Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the MigrationWatch pressure group, said: “We should not fool ourselves that the tide of immigration has turned.
“Immigration from Eastern Europe may well come back into balance in a few years' time but that is only one third of foreign immigration.
“The other two-thirds are non-EU citizens, where we can apply immigration controls and must do so.”
Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, head of migration research at the IPPR, said: “Migration from the new EU member states has happened on a staggering scale but seems to have been largely positive for all concerned.
“Our findings challenge the widely-held assumptions that most of those who have arrived are still here, that more will come and most will stay permanently.
“It is a question of when, not if, the great East European migration slows.
“With fewer migrants in and more migrants out, the UK seems to be experiencing turnstiles, not floodgates.”
The research looked at migrants from eight countries which joined the European Union in May 2004 – Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia-Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
It also included migrants from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007.
According to the research, there were 665,000 nationals from all ten countries living in the UK in the last quarter of 2007.
This was an increase of 548,000 since the first quarter of 2004, just prior to the first eight countries joining the EU.
