IMMIGRANT BABY BOOM

A BABY boom among immigrant families has helped send Britain’s population soaring over 61 million for the first time in history.


Last year’s increase of 408,000 is the biggest for nearly half a century, Government figures revealed yesterday.

Immigrant mothers now give birth to one in every four babies born in the UK. In London, more than half of all births – 55 per cent – are to mothers born overseas.

Half a million newcomers came to live in Britain during 2008 while asylum claims increased by four per cent between April and June this year, the Office for National Statistics revealed.

Yet Immigration Minister Phil Woolas last night claimed: “The British people can be confident that immigration is under control.”

His astonishing remark provoked fresh outrage over Labour’s open-door border policy, with critics denouncing his words as “spin”.Immigrant mothers now give birth to one in every four babies born in the UK. In London, more than half of all births – 55 per cent – are to mothers born overseas.

Sir Andrew Green, of think tank Migrationwatch, said: “This is a ridiculous claim. The population is heading inexorably towards the

70 million mark within 25 years.” The official figures released yesterday showed that Britain’s population is now 61.4 million, two million more than in 2001.

Government statisticians said the rise was due to a baby boom resulting from the highest fertility rates in a generation. A relatively high birth rate among the growing number of immigrant families was a significant factor.

Of the 791,000 babies born in the UK last year, 24 per cent had immigrant mothers. Overwhelmingly, they were from Pakistan, India or Poland.

Immigration figures yesterday showed only a slight reduction in the number of people coming to live in the UK despite the economic downturn.

A total of 512,000 people arrived during 2008, compared with 527,000 in 2007.

Last year’s influx included 441,000 non-British citizens. The drop in the rate last year was largely the result of a fall in the number of new arrivals from eastern European countries such as Poland and Slovakia – down by 28 per cent from 109,000 to 79,000.

An estimated 66,000 citizens of the former eastern bloc went home over the same period.

Overall, 118,000 more people arrived in Britain than left, the lowest net immigration figure since the EU expanded in 2004.

Ministers said the reduction was a “success” for Labour’s border policies, but Migrationwatch denounced their claims as “spin”. Sir Andrew said: “It is the usual Government spin to claim these numbers as a success for immigration policy despite the fact that foreign immigration is virtually unchanged at about half a million a year.

“What has really happened is that EU citizens have voted with their feet. The number leaving has doubled in the face of the deep recession in Britain but EU migration is something over which the Government have no control whatever.”

Damian Green, Shadow Immigration Minister, said: “These figures expose the dishonesty of Gordon Brown’s promise to provide British jobs for British workers. At a time of rising unemployment the numbers of new people coming here to work are 34 per cent higher than at the height of the boom 10 years ago.

“This puts added pressure on housing and transport, and shows that there is still no proper control over immigration.”

Former Labour minister Frank Field and senior Tory backbencher Nicholas Soames, of the Cross Party Group on Balanced Migration, said: “The fall in net migration may well be temporary – as in previous recessions – but even at the present level of immigration we are still on target for the UK’s population to exceed 70 million within 25 years. There are no laurels to rest on. The need for firm measures on immigration is unchanged.”

The population is now growing by a rate of 0.7 per cent every year, more than double the rate in the 1990s and three times the level of the 1980s, the figures confirm. And the number of work permits handed out to immigrants also remained relatively high, despite Britain’s jobs crisis.

The total number of work permit holders admitted to the UK was 81,400 in 2008, compared with 53,600 in 1999, an increase of 34 per cent.

Border and Immigration Minister Mr Woolas said: “The fall in net migration is further proof that migrants come to the UK for short periods, work, contribute to the economy and then return home.

“Our new flexible points-based system gives us greater control on those coming to work or study from outside Europe. continues here

English-speaking pupils are a minority in inner-city London primary schools

Children who speak English as their first language are now a minority in inner-city London primary schools, official figures showed yesterday.

Youngsters with a different mother tongue form a majority in primaries in 13 out of 33 London boroughs and in nearby Slough.

In inner London, 54 per cent of primary pupils and 48.5 per cent in secondary institutions do not speak English as their first language. This amounts to an astonishing 159,340 children.

Across the country, English is a foreign language to more than one in seven primary youngsters - almost half a million.

The figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families point to the major demographic changes over the past few decades. Around a fifth of pupils are from ethnic minorities - up from 11 per cent in 1997.

There are concerns that school finances are under strain as growing numbers of youngsters require help with English.

Heads' leaders have urged the Government to fund schools adequately and give fair treatment during inspections to those with large concentrations of non-English speakers.

The figures show there are 14 council areas in which primary children with English as their second language are in the majority - 13 London boroughs and Slough.

In Tower Hamlets almost four out of five youngsters do not have English as their mother tongue. In other areas, including Leicester, Luton and Bradford the proportion is approaching 50 per cent.

For primaries overall, 15.2 per cent are non-native English speakers - up from 14.4 per cent last year.
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The figures indicate that many recent migrants have settled in London. The lowest populations of youngsters with English as a second language are in the South West and North East.

Sir Andrew Green, of the Migrationwatch think-tank, said: 'These figures confirm the huge impact immigration is having on our society.

When Government funds are as tight as they are, this is bound to have a negative impact as children with English as an additional language will need extra tuition.'

He added: 'In inner London it's hard to know who immigrant children are supposed to integrate with since they heavily outnumber local children.'

The figures reflect a five-fold increase in immigration since Labour came to power. Net immigration has increased from 48,000 in 1997 to 237,000 in 2007 continues here

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