Britain is facing record immigration

London, Nov 3 (UNI) Immigration to Britain is continuing to run at record levels and is adding 500 people a day to the British population.

New official figures showed yesterday that the largest group of arrivals were people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who accounted for two thirds of net immigration, mainly fuelled by family reunion. However, the largest single nationality coming to Britain and staying for a year or more was Poles.

While 1,000 left daily in 2005 to live and work abroad(often foreigners returning home) 1,500 arrived. Net immigration is now the highest in the country's history, but there are also record numbers of British citizens leaving these shores.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics, indicate that 565,000 people came to live here for at least 12 months last year, slightly down on 2004, while 380,000 left. Half of the emigrants were British citizens, mostly bound for France, Spain and Australia.

In the first full year after the former Soviet bloc countries joined the European Union, total immigration from the eight nations was given as 80,000, far fewer than the number who registered to work.

Nearly 70,000 arrivals came from the Old Commonwealth - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa - and 121,000 from other Commonwealth countries.

Britain is currently experiencing the highest levels of immigration in its history. The 2004 net figure of 223,000 was the highest ever. More than 4.3 million people born abroad were living in Britain at the time of the 2001 census, an increase of around one million compared with 1991 and two million higher than 30 years ago.

Most of the settlement grants last year were to people from Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Africa. More than half were dependants of people already here, with an increase of 25 per cent in the settlements of husbands and of 20 per cent in wives. The majority of those granted settlement in 2005 were relatively young, with 116,950 under 35.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: "These figures confirm that we are facing the largest wave of immigration in our history.

He added: "The level is four times that of 1997 and, if these figures are right, the bulk of immigration is not from eastern Europe, which accounts for just over one in five." One consequence of record immigration is that, for the first time in Britain's history, it is the primary motor for population growth.

Government figures indicate that the population is projected to rise by seven million in the next 25 years and more than half of this will be the direct result of immigration, with another 30 per cent formed by the children of recent immigrants.

Although there has been a big rise in eastern European arrivals, it is unlikely that many of the arrivals will choose to settle in Britain permanently. Separate statistics that were issued earlier this year showed that more immigrants than ever before from outside the European Union are staying in Britain for good.

UNI XC SP RN2003