Effect of recession on UK immigration.

The latest statistics released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the foreign-born residents in Britain have touched the 6.5 million mark, which shows an increase of 290,000.

In addition to this, the statistics also revealed that there were 300,000 more foreign nationals living in Britain in the year till June 2008, when it was compared to the previous years’ stats.

The largest group of foreign nationals comprised of Indian-born nationals, taking the count up to 619,000 residents in the UK, while the second largest group comprised of Polish-born with 462,000. The results also show that there was a 47 percent decrease in the number of UK work permit applications from Eastern European countries, falling to just 29,000 in the September quarter of 2008, from 53,000 in the same quarter of 2007.

The results also revealed that there was 13 percent drop in the number of short-term migrants moving to the UK from 2006 to 2007.

About the result, Phil Woolas said that it showed that the new, tougher, points-based UK immigration system is doing well by reducing the numbers during this recession. However, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson, Chris Huhne, said that it might be the current economic situation which has discouraged immigrants more than the government’s stance of “British jobs for British workers".

Huhne said that the sharp decline in the number of economic migrants from eastern European countries reveal the extent to which the UK has become unattractive to foreign workers.