Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Migration

The Department of Work and Pensions has issued a report on the number of migrants who've been granted National Insurance numbers. Of particular interest is the breakdown of the top ten countries from which the migrants come. The figures for 2004/05 and 2005/06 are as follows:

All figures in thousands


2004/05 2005/06
Poland 62.6 Poland 171.4
India 32.7 India 46.0
Pakistan 20.3 Lithuania 30.5
South Africa 19.3 Slovakia 26.4
Australia 16.6 South Africa 24.0
Lithuania 15.6 Australia 23.8
France 13.3 Pakistan 22.3
China 12.6 France 17.2
Portugal 12.2 Latvia 14.2
Slovakia 10.5 Germany 13.3





What is remarkable is the countries missing from the list: the Czech
Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, the three most successful of the eight
countries to join. This indicates that the Polish migration is down to
specific economic problems in that country.

The pressures should be relieved by Spain, Portugal and Greece opening their doors to the eastern europeans without restriction from 1 May 2006. France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Denmark have eased restrictions. Only Germany and Austria have full restrictions in place. As these countries start to open their doors, and as the eastern europeans themselves lift restrictions on movement between themselves, we should start to see the migration fall. What would really help of course is Poland improving her economic performance - not sure that is possible at the moment as the very strange Law and Justice party is in power.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

People forget Poland is a strange country - more Catholic than people think.

Anyhoos, another thing the data doesn't take into account is: those who have left since registration. Also, I know the Daily Mail very much-enjoyed mentioning the ‘thousands’ who are enjoying Tax Credits. But aren’t they simply complicated rebates on tax already paid? More idle scaremongering nonsense from Mosley’s favourite rag.