London, Nov 3: Paradoxically, a net increase of as much as 500 in its population every day as a result of massive immigration and emigration that takes place round the year in Britain is making this country’s economy richer by four billion pounds annually.
These are last year’s figures but the trend appears to be continuing, making the UK still the most popular destination in the world for jobs and education.
Some 1,500 immigrants arrived in Britain every day in 2005 with people from Poland leading the influx, while 1,000 left the country -- mostly to the US, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Net inward migration from `new Commonwealth’ countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, however fell by 26,000 to 97,000 last year.
But the slack here seems to have been taken up to a significant extent by the eight eastern European countries that joined the European Union recently as there was a 15,000 rise to 64,000 from these countries in the same year.
A net annual inflow of 185,000, although 38,000 fewer than in the previous year, was said to be the second highest since records began to be kept in 1991.
Immigration, rather than birth rate, is now the biggest cause of the growth of Britain’s population, which passed 60 million last year, still less than half of Pakistan’s population of 160 million.
The net inflow of asylum-seekers fell to 11,000 from a record high of 81,000 five years ago. It is the lowest figure for more than a decade. The falling asylum figures reflect tougher enforcement measures and increases in the number of removals.
Looking at the positive side of the net increases in the country’s population at such a fast rate, Liam Byrne, the Immigration minister , said that migrant workers made a vital contribution to the country, with workers from the new east European EU members boosting the economy by £4 billion annually.
He said about one in four work-permit applications were for jobs in the health sector and one in six in information technology.
Danny Sriskandarajah, a migration specialist with the Institute for Public Policy Research think-tank, told the Independent that since Britain had a healthy economy it attracted workers from all over the world.
Experts said the availability of large numbers of immigrants has helped fill skills shortages and restricted wage inflation during a period of relatively low unemployment.
The increased labour supply also explains why employment and joblessness recently have been rising at the same time.
Concerns that high number of immigrants, particularly from the eight eastern accession countries that joined the EU in 2004, may place an increasing strain on local services has prompted the government to announce restrictions on workers from Bulgaria and Romania when they join the EU next year.
