UK: Løfte fra regjeringen tilsier 80 prosent mindre innvandring

For noen uker siden kunngjorde den britiske regjeringen at den akter å innføre tiltak for å holde befolkningen i Storbritannia under 70 millioner. Storbritannia er allerede blitt det tettest befolkede landet i Europa. Imidlertid avslører nasjonalstatistiker Karen Dunnell hvilke dramatiske endringer i britisk innvandringspolitikk som i såfall må til, og legger til at regjeringens fremtidsscenario ikke er særlig realistisk:

Skal regjeringen klare å nå sitt uttalte mål, må nettoinnvandringen reduseres med hele 80 prosent årlig - fra nåværende 237.000 til 50.000 i året.

The balance of those settling here over those leaving must be cut to just 50,000 a year if the population is not to pass the landmark total.

But that would require an enormous reduction from the current net level of 237,000 a year and makes a mockery of immigration minister Phil Woolas' pledge to keep numbers under control.

Karen Dunnell, the National Statistician, has revealed for the first time the dramatic changes required to keep population growth in check.

It comes as the Home Office will today announce it is keeping restrictions in place for at least another year on low-skilled workers from Romania and Bulgaria.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said "This is a stunning admission which we have had to wring out of the statisticians.

"The Government claims that they can hold the population of the UK under 70 million by means of their new points based system is blown completely out of the water.

I oktober lovet immigrasjonsminister Phil Woolas at regjeringen ikke vil la befolkningen gå over 70 millioner, men nåværende fremskrivinger viser at befolkningen i Storbritannia vil passere dette tallet i løpet av de neste 20 årene.

But in a letter to MPs, Ms Dunnell said, assuming fertility and mortality projections remain the same, annual net migration would have to drop to 50,000 if the population is to stay below that level by 2081.

But she added: "In practice, this may not be a realistic scenario."

Current long term projections have net migration at 190,000 a year, which would see numbers pass 70 million by 2028.

But even that could be an overestimate as net migration last year stood at 237,000 - the second highest level on record.

Labour MP Frank Field, co-chairmen of the Cross Party Group for Balanced Migration, said: "This shows the huge scale of the task required to get our population back under control. These figures show that Ministers have yet to start taking decisive action".

The Telegraph: Immigration 'must be slashed' to keep population below 70m

UK: 4,5 millioner har flyttet på 10 år