UK IMMIGRATION NEWS

Britain is the second most popular destination for migrants

Monday, 15 September 2008

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently published a report which shows that Britain was second only to the United States when it came to attracting immigrants.

In 2006, according to the report, 343,000 foreigners came to work or live in the UK and the United States accepted 1.3 million foreigners - a third of the four million migrants who went to settle developed countries in 2006.

The other biggest destinations for migrants were including Germany (216,000), Italy (204,000), Australia (192,000), France (169,000), Japan (96,000) and the Netherlands (59,000).

The Tories' shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "These figures further undermine Gordon Brown's grand and unwise pronouncement to create British jobs for British workers".

"Britain is an attractive destination for immigration - and many new arrivals bring benefits but we must have an annual limit that takes into account the impact on public services."

The UK Border Agency spokesman said: "Alongside this our tough new points system, plus our plans for newcomers to earn their citizenship, will reduce overall numbers of economic migrants coming to Britain and the numbers awarded permanent settlement."

The UK Border and Agency have also announced plans to make it harder for thousands of teachers, GPs, midwives and social workers to come to the UK under a new points migration system. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published a list of nearly 200 skilled occupations - rated as the equivalent of two A-levels or above - that can be filled by migrant workers under new immigration rules.

This list have excluded a number of occupations that previously have been filled by migrants from outside the European Economic Area - the European Union plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - under the old work permit programme.

OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurrķa, said lower skilled migrants were needed to fill jobs in other sectors, such as home care, food processing and construction and therefore urged countries to open up their economies for lower-skilled workers as well as to those with high skills.

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