One in 10 living in UK was born overseas
ONE in 10 people living in Britain is foreign, official figures show.
The number of people living here but born overseas reached 5.95 million last year. That equates to 9.2 per cent of the population – almost double the 2005 figure of five per cent.
Romanians were the largest group of arrivals in 2015-16, followed by Chinese, Poles, Indians and Italians.
The figures, published yesterday by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, sparked fresh calls for a major overhaul of UK border controls.
Steven Woolfe, an Independent MEP, said: “These staggering numbers are a result of unlimited, mass migration for over a decade. We need to start to look at immigration in the long term and how these numbers impact our public services and infrastructure.
“Current levels are not sustainable. We are getting back control by leaving the EU so now is the time to reduce the numbers significantly.”
In 2015 the UK had a net gain of 189,000 non-EU citizens and 184,000 EU citizens, including 58,000 Romanians and Bulgarians. Romania accounted for 10 per cent of all immigrants to the UK.
Alanna Thomas, of Migration Watch UK, said: “This report will come as no surprise to the public, who are all too aware that net migration in recent years has reached record levels, placing huge pressure on our public services and housing.”
David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth, said: “This report is extremely concerning. No rational person wants to stop all immigration but there has to be limits. We need to reduce numbers coming in to the UK greatly and ask those who do come here to learn English and respect the culture of the British people.”
More than a third of births in 2015 – 230,800 – were to families where one or both parents were born overseas.
ACCORDING to an OECD report, nearly one in 10 of the people living in the UK last year was a foreign citizen. This is a damning indictment of the effect that the era of mass migration has had on this country. Ever since Tony Blair threw open the floodgates our nation has undergone a radical change.
Mass migration has put downward pressure on wages, overwhelmed public services and caused problems with housing. With little sign – yet – of this process significantly slowing down the potential consequences of continued open borders are deeply worrying.
It is more important than ever that Theresa May succeeds in her bid to win back control of our borders.