Call for action on immigration as low-skilled still flock to UK

LOW-skilled workers from Eastern Europe are continuing to head to the UK in large numbers to look for work as net migration hit its highest level in more than five years, according to new figures.

The number of low-skilled workers, such as some of those in the retail, hospitality and catering sectors, coming from outside the UK has more than doubled in the last nine years.

The rise was driven by a 60-fold increase in those coming from the eight Eastern European countries that were the latest to join the European Union, all of whom are outside the control of the Government’s new immigration cap.

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Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the campaign group Migration Watch UK, said the figures showed firm measures were now “absolutely essential”.

“The impact on British-born workers is a particular concern that has been brushed under the carpet for too long,” he said.

But a Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman said: “Feedback from Chamber members shows that economic migrants are a valuable part of their workforce and often tend to be more flexible in the hours that they will work and the nature of the work that they will undertake.”

Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands by 2015, but the figure continued to rise last year as it hit 242,000, up from 198,000 at the end of 2009 and 163,000 the year before.

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This was fuelled by a 20 per cent fall in the number of people leaving the UK, down to 344,000 from its peak of 427,000 in the 12 months to December 2008, the figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.

But the number of migrants coming to the UK has remained constant at 586,000, taking net migration – the number coming to the UK less the number leaving – to 242,000, up from 198,000 at the end of 2009 and 163,000 the year before.

One in five workers in low-skill jobs was born outside the UK, the figures showed, while the number of UK workers in these jobs fell from 3.04 million to 2.56 million.

An extra 367,000 people born outside the UK are now working in low-skill jobs, taking the total to 666,000 in the first three months of the year, up from 298,000 at the start of 2002.

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This included 239,000 people from the eight Eastern European countries - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia – almost 60 times the 4,000 workers from these countries who were in such jobs in 2002. They were also more likely to take low-skill jobs.

The Government introduced a cap on the number of migrants coming to the UK from outside the EU last month, as well as a crackdown on bogus students and those seeking to settle in the UK, as it seeks to fulfil its pledge to cut net migration to the tens of thousands by 2015

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: “We accept that employers need to attract the brightest talent from across the world to fill jobs gaps but this should never be at the expense of UK workers.

“These statistics show that immigration was out of control thanks to the old system – that is why we have already introduced radical changes to drive the numbers down and we will shortly be consulting on a range of new measures.”

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But Matt Cavanagh, associate director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said it was time for the Government to admit that the target “makes little sense, and can’t be achieved without damaging Britain’s economy.

“When they set the target in opposition, the Conservatives clearly hadn’t planned for emigration continuing to fall.”

Shadow Immigration Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said: “These figures once again call into question the Government’s promise to cut net migration to the tens of thousands by 2015.

“Since the Business Secretary publicly disagreed with the Prime Minister that the target was an agreed policy and the Prime Minister insisted he was ‘no ifs, no buts’, the Government has gone very quiet on what was a flagship Conservative promise.”