Government figures published in Agust show that net migration to the UK dropped by 44% in 2008.

The Institute for Public Policy Research highlights the fact that the drop is largely explained by rapid increases in the emigration of non-British citizens from the UK – up 50% in 2008.
This trend is particularly marked for migrants from new EU member states – net migration from these countries was just 14,000 in 2008, down from a peak of over 80,000 in 2007.

There is strong evidence that migration responds to economic conditions – people come to the UK when there are jobs, and leave when there aren't.

Ippr's Head of Migration, Tim Finch said: "ippr has pointed out for some time that migration flows go in cycles, and these latest figures for 2008 indicate that after a number of years in which net migration was high, it is now declining sharply – almost certainly because of a combination of the economic downturn, the short term nature of much migration from new EU countries, and the impact of stronger controls and management put in place by the government.

"There has been a lot of irresponsible scaremongering about immigration in recent years which was based on the false assumption that high net migration into the UK was inevitable for years to come.

As our recent report on re-migration showed, migration flows go both ways and we now need to be thinking about how our managed migration systems can continue to attract and retain the migrants we need to help our economy to recover and grow."

statistics taken from Office for National Statistics Migration Statistics Quarterly Report, August 2009, available at : http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=15230


Unforunately all too many people believe the scare 'statistics' of the Daily Mail that 'prove' we are "swamped", "flooded", "deluged" etc etc, by a "tidal wave" of "unprecedented" and "unnecessary" or "unjustified" immigrants that are "crowding" this scepted isle,


For example, although the largest numbers of immigrants to the EU in 2006 were recorded in Spain, Germany and United Kingdom among these countries only Spain also had high immigration relative to its population size.

The highest rate of immigration was, in fact, recorded in Luxembourg, followed by Ireland, Cyprus and Spain.
These four countries had significantly higher rates compared with other Member States, while for Germany and the United Kingdom, immigration per 1000 inhabitants was close to the EU-27 average.

Eurostat, 'Recent migration trends: citizens of EU-27 Member States become ever more mobile while EU remains attractive to non-EU citizens'.

So in reality the immigration rate for the UK is around the EU average; in other words a global – or at least European – phenomenon.

To also discover how papers like The Daily Mail use misleading crime stats to make readers frightened of foreigners and falsely claim the NHS is about to treat "A million failed asylum seekers" check out Mail Watch