Migrants Rule Brit Workforce
MORE than half of all jobs in certain parts of Britain are held by workers born abroad.
By STAFF REPORTER
Published: 30 Jun 2010
New figures have revealed that the workforce in some towns and cities across the country is dominated by foreign-born employees.
Campaigners now say the focus of employers and the Government should be to find jobs for out of work Brits delivering on Labour's repeated promise of “British jobs for British workers”.
The top hotspot for overseas workers is in the East London borough of Newham, where the 2012 Olympic site is currently being built.
According to information from the Office of National Statistics almost seven in every ten jobs are filled by workers who were not born in the UK or 65,100 out of 93,700 posts. Many of the jobs are on the Olympic site itself.
There are six local authority areas in the capital where more than 50 per cent of jobs are filled by migrant workers and a further 18 where those born outside the UK take up more than a third of jobs.
Outside London, the areas where the biggest proportion of jobs are taken by immigrants are Slough, Leicester, Luton, Reading, Cambridge, Manchester and Oxford.
Many of the workers are Eastern European and do not need permits to work in this country.
Experts say it is vital the Government imposes a strict cap on non-EU migrants to bring the total number of foreign workers under control.
Immigration minister Damian Green said: “This shows why we need a limit on work visas as well as a better trained British workforce.
