Inflated data curbs UK immigration

United Kingdom, 2nd September: Inflated UK immigration figures are inhibiting immigration of non-EU skilled migrants including Indians to come to the UK, states MP Keith Vaz.

According to Vaz, head of influential home affairs select committee in Britain, the latest ONS (Office of National Statistics) figures for the year 2010 show an increase in UK immigration levels by around 21 percent to 243,000 from 147,000.

Polish migrants outnumber Indians in the UK--The data asserts that the number of Indians living in the UK is said to be quite less than the number of Polish migrants. And it is the Polish migrants who seem to be stealing away jobs from UK-born workers.

And the point worth consideration here is that the skill levels of migrants from India are quite different from those of Polish migrants.

So, a curb on non-EU skilled immigrants is not justified, Vaz added. Since, almost all the increase in UK immigration levels is primarily due to migration of people from Eastern Europe.

Most of Eastern European nations are struggling with high rate of joblessness leading in large-scale immigration of migrants to the UK. Moreover, with inclusion of eight East European nations to EU (Eastern Union) in 2004 led to a big increase in immigration of Polish migrants to the UK.

That’s because as per the agreement, people of EU are allowed to stay and work in any of 27-member nations. So, the UK has no way to control immigration of such people.

Increasing migration from Europe-a blow to Coalition’s pledge—Increasing levels of migration from Europe to the UK is, inadvertently, a big blow to the huge claims of the UK government to considerably bring down the immigration to ‘tens of thousands’.

As per the recent ONS data, net migration from Europe went up to 40,000 in 2010 from 5,000 in the year 2009. Hence, the UK government must refrain from including foreign students and East European workers in the category of immigrants since a large percentage of Europeans are temporary seasonal workers coming for a short duration of time.

Moreover, foreign students coming to the UK are not going to stay in the UK forever.

As per the current norms, all European workers are included among immigrants provided they have live in the UK for a period of one year, Vaz claimed.

So, by excluding the number of foreign students coming to the UK for studying here from total number of immigrants, the immigration targets of the UK are already achieved, said Vaz.

And since, East Europeans do not fill skilled work provided for immigrants coming to the UK from India, so, curbs on such skilled immigrants (especially those from China and India) must be lifted, he added.