The United Kingdom and Immigration

The UK is especially attractive to immigrants for a number of reasons. If a certain type of tabloid newspaper is to be believed, the principal reasons are the NHS and state benefits.

It is true that a relatively small but populous island state, such as the UK, may feel the effects of an influx of people particularly sharply. However, figures released by the EU’s statistics department suggest that immigration is just as big an issue for many other countries in the EU as it is for the UK

European statistics recently released show that, in 2009, the UK had just over 4 m. foreign-born citizens. This figure is said to represent 6.6% of the UK’s total population. Foreign-born citizens who come from outside of the EU constitute 3.9% of the UK’s population. The UK currently ranks 40th in the world for net migration – the difference between the number of people coming to a country and the number of people leaving that country.

The Office of National Statistics said the number was up by 46,000 on 2006 as a result of a fall in the number of people moving out of the UK. The estimated number of people arriving to live in the UK for 12 months or more was 577,000 in 2007, compared with 591,000 in 2006, while the number of people leaving the country fell from 400,000 to 340,000 over the same period.

As the UK adjusts to a new government and struggles to recover from the global recession, immigration has continued to make headlines. It may be easy to blame recent immigrants for dwindling resources and an apparent deterioration in public services. The UK’s attempt to create a multicultural society is deemed by some to have failed. Immigration rules are being modified to require a greater level of integration by new immigrants than was previously necessary. Whether net migration will continue at recent levels in 2012 and further may well depend as much on the UK’s ability to climb out of recession as the warmth of the welcome given to new immigrants.

(the source: http://www.aboutimmigration.co.uk/how-uk-compares-other-eu-countries.html )

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