Study lifts lid on Britain’s immigrants
A ten-year survey detailing the different groups of immigrants living in Britain has been published for the first time.
Research by the ippr think tank finds the foreign-born population increased by 1.14 million between 1991 and 2001, with most immigrants living in London and the south-east.
The 2001 census found 4.3 million people born abroad living in Britain, of whom 494,850 were from Ireland, 466,416 from India and 320,767 from Pakistan.
There were also found to be 262,276 people who were born in Germany – a figure attributed to the high number of military personnel living and serving there during the last few decades.
Director Nick Pearce said the analysis showed how diversity in Britain has “changed considerably” in recent years, with the capital in particular becoming “hyper-diverse”.
“In the post-war period we had migration from parts of the British Empire, [which was from] relatively few countries – the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and so on,” he told Today.
“In the 1990’s and the early part of this century we’ve seen an incredible pluralisation of the parts of the world from which people have come; Afghanistan, Angola, Sweden, South Africa, Somalia.
“It’s an incredibly diverse picture and London is now hyper-diverse, it’s an incredibly cosmopolitan place. So the important thing about this is it enables us to take a more fine-grained approach to these integration challenges.”
Analysis of economic data for different groups found that while the Indian community, for example, was thriving, other groups such as the Bangladeshi and Somali communities were still struggling despite being established in the UK for decades.
Mr Pearce said the purpose of the report was not to “get into a numbers game” about immigration, but to show how well the different communities were doing and ask what could be done to improve their position in Britain.
“For example, official statistics still talk about black Africans – education statistics, employment statistics. It’s an entire continent; it’s madness to base your policy on that kind of figure,” he continued.
“Our research shows that Nigerians for example in Britain are doing very well, Somalians are doing very badly. You need to have that kind of analysis to enable you to respond.”
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the right-wing think tank Migration Watch UK, welcomed the study but challenged its basic premise that immigration was set to continue.
“There’s a wider point here I think, a democratic point – 70 per cent of the population believe that there are too many immigrants coming into Britain and interestingly 60 per cent of Asians agree with that,” he told the same programme.
“And the government are simply riding roughshod over the views of the public and in the long-term I think that’s a very serious mistake.”
