Indians:Largest new immigrants to UK

LONDON: The largest number of migrants into Britain during 2004 and 2005 were from India, according to latest official figures that show that people from the Indian sub-continent account for two-third of net immigration. Although the largest single increase in new migrants to Britain came from Poland, with 57,000 arriving in 2005 compared with only 17,000 the year before, more long-term migrants came from India, figures released by the Office of National Statistics said.

ONS tables show that 99,000 new migrants came from India during 2004 and 2005, compared with 76,000 from Poland, with China third with 59,000.
The ONS said: “There has been a noticeable upward trend of out-migration in recent years. This, coupled with lower numbers of in-migration of British citizens, has resulted in increasing net emigration since 2000.” It added: “Conversely, immigration of non-British citizens has more than doubled since the early 1990s.

Out-migration of non-British citizens has been considerably lower. This has resulted in a pattern of high and increasing net immigration.”

In 2005, there was a net emigration of 107,000 British while net immigration of non-British people amounted to 292,000. In 1991, one third of all citizens entering the UK were British.

By 2005, this dropped to 16%. Most of the departing British citizens were bound for France, Spain and Australia. The largest group of arrivals were people from the Indian subcontinent - who accounted for two-thirds of net immigration, mainly fuelled by family reunions - and from Poland.

There was a net increase of 185,000 in Britain’s population due to immigration in 2005 - the equivalent of an extra 500 people a day. The ONS estimates that 565,000 migrants arrived in Britain in 2005 intending to stay for at least a year.
At the same time 380,000 people - over half of them British citizens - left the country to live abroad, with Australia the most popular destination followed by Spain and France. The annual level of migration from Britain has risen each year since 1998 when 251,000 left in the first full year of Tony Blair’s government.

A breakdown of the occupations of new migrants also shows that 170,000 describe themselves as professional or managerial and only 143,000 intend to work in manual or clerical jobs.

Work is the most important reason for immigration to Britain, with 28% having a definite job to go to and 15% of those who came saying they were looking for work. A further 128,000 of the total came to Britain as students.