http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20.../16/emigration
The number of people leaving Britain to live abroad reached a record high of 400,000 last year, an increase of 41,000 on 2005, according to figures published by the Office of National Statistics yesterday.
The statistics show that 207,000 were British citizens, with most going to Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain or the United States. The rest of the 400,000 were non-British and had been in the UK for more than one year.
The annual international migration figures confirm that an estimated 591,000 people arrived to live in the UK for at least a year in 2006, giving a net inward flow of 191,000, down from the record high of 244,000 estimated for 2004.
It is the first time the annual number of British emigrants has exceeded 200,000.
The largest group of new immigrants were from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, outnumbering those from Poland and other EU states. Work remains the most reported factor for immigrants, but those arriving to study for at least a year reached a new high of 157,000.
With so many EU workers coming here, is it right to allow so many non-EU persons here? Are they all getting jobs, are they all highly skilled and educated and do they all fill specialist roles in IT, medicine and the like, or what?
The EU migrants I can understand, they have a right to free movement, but why are their numbers dwarfed by non-EU immigrants?
More importantly, if they all leave next year in a recession, where does that leave BTL?
