UK gets 2.5m new foreign workers
Two and a half million foreigners have moved to the UK to work since 2002, National Insurance figures suggest.
The numbers, which include those who may only have been in the UK for a short time, have been getting larger each year, reaching 713,000 last year.
The Home Office stressed these were people coming to the UK to work, and said it now monitored social impact.
But Damian Green, for the Tories, said the "huge" and "accelerating" figures were "extraordinary" and should be cut.
REGIONS WORKERS ARE FROM
New EU countries: 321,00
Asia & Mid-East: 145,000
Old EU countries: 103,000
Africa: 61,000
Aus & Oceania: 33,000
The Americas: 32,000
Non-EU Europe: 16,000
Source: DWP figures on those registering for a National Insurance number in year to April 2007
The shadow immigration minister highlighted the 300,000 workers arriving in the UK from outside the EU, saying that number should be cut.
If not, he said: "The benefits of immigration will be lost among the social and economic difficulties caused by the sheer scale of the current numbers."
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said the 16% increase in east European immigrants given National Insurance numbers "confirm that the numbers are considerably higher than the Government first estimated".
He said the Government had "failed to plan adequately both in terms of housing and funding for local services".
full story here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6913296.stm
