Call for 20,000-a-year cap on migrants arriving in UK

All-party call for 20,000-a-year cap on migrants arriving in UK
Last updated at 8:24 AM on 08th September 2008 (MAIL ONLINE)

An unprecedented coalition of public figures will today call for a limit on migrant numbers settling in the UK.
The group of MPs and peers, including a former Archbishop of Canterbury, want a policy of 'balanced migration'.
Only around 20,000 non-EU economic migrants would be allowed to stay permanently each year. The rest would have to go home after four years.

The campaigners, led by former Labour Minister Frank Field, say their system would produce a UK population of around 65million by 2050 - compared to projections of 78.6million under Government policies.
Net immigration is currently estimated at more than 190,000 a year, though not all will stay permanently.
An opinion poll last night showed a large majority of voters in favour of the all-party group's proposal - but Labour effectively ruled it out.

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said the Government's new points-based system would be better than 'made up quotas' for bringing in migrants with the skills needed by our economy.
The aim of balanced migration is to keep the number of foreigners settling here permanently at around the same as the number of Britons who leave.
The group calling for it, headed jointly by Mr Field and Tory MP Nicholas Soames, also includes Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Ahmed, one of Labour's leading Muslim politicians.

Mr Field said the recent wave of immigration had been unprecedented - 25 times higher than any for nearly 1,000 years. It had 'undoubtedly brought gains' to some sections of the community.

But the former welfare minister added: 'One group that has disproportionately borne the cost of such immigration, through pressure on wages, longer waiting lists for decent housing and increased demand for public services, has been lower-paid black and white Britons.

'This group has also often experienced a transformation of their neighbourhoods from settled working-class communities to societies they can barely recognise.'

The MPs and peers, who also include Lord Bill Jordan, former president of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, Field Marshal Lord Inge and economic historian Lord Skidelsky, asked the campaign group Migrationwatch to prepare ' constructive' proposals for balancing migration.

Today, it publishes a 56-page report setting out a framework for controlling numbers without harming the economy.

The document suggests no limit or changes to the rights of genuine asylum seekers, who make up only three per cent of foreign migration. There would also be no major changes to marriage rules which confer settlement rights, or any attempt to limit free movement within the EU.
Instead, the proposals focus on economic migrants. They would still be allowed to obtain work permits, using the points-based system to ensure the economy is not left without vital skills.
But workers would be expected to return home after four years. Only a limited number of the best-paid or highest-skilled - around 20,000 each year - would be allowed settlement rights.
When this 20,000 is added to those granted settlement rights through marriage, asylum and other routes, the total number of foreigners allowed to remain permanently each year would be around 130,000. It would be balanced by the 125,000 British citizens who emigrate, giving a net increase of only 5,000.

The campaigners hope this would reduce some of the strains being experienced by communities across the UK.
They point out that, over the past decade, nearly 2.5million migrants have arrived while almost 750,000 British people have left - a 1.7million rise in the population. Schools, hospitals and housing have been placed under enormous pressure.
Migrationwatch also commissioned a YouGov opinion poll on behalf of the group.
It found that 81 per cent of Labour voters want a substantial reduction in immigration numbers - a position at odds with the Government. Some 89 per cent of Tories also want a sharp fall.
The poll showed that 33 per cent of the electorate would be more likely to vote Tory if David Cameron adopted 'balanced migration', while only five per cent would be less likely.
Among black and ethnic minority respondents, 75 per cent wanted much lower immigration. They were split almost evenly between supporting 'balanced migration' and wanting even tougher controls.
Migrationwatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said: 'This clearly shows that voters from across the board, including the ethnic minorities, strongly support a policy at least as firm as balanced migration. Concern about the present massive uncontrolled level of immigration is not a partisan issue.

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'We have made our own proposals to set an annual limit on economic immigration, because we want to reduce the pressure on our public services caused by the uncontrolled immigration levels of recent years.
'We will look with great interest at the proposals of the new group, so that we can continue to develop an immigration policy which is fair, helpful to the British economy and reasonable for the public services.'
But Jill Rutter, of the IPPR think-tank, said: 'The proposal that migrant workers should leave the UK after a four-year period would mean employers could not retain the hard-working migrants they want to. We need to make migration work for Britain, rather than play to xenophobic sentiments.'
Immigration minister Liam Byrne said: 'Our tough new points system, plus our plans for newcomers to earn citizenship, will reduce numbers of economic migrants coming to Britain, and the number awarded permanent settlement.
'The points system means only those with the skills Britain needs can come. Unlike made-up quotas, this stops Government cutting business off from the skills it needs when it needs them.'

Lets see if all these imigrants go, if British people will do the jobs that these imigrants are doing, all u pple do is complain, but these contribute to tax and do jobs that 100% of u there cant do...be doctors, nurses, factory work, banks, farms etc, fine its too much people but why dont u look at the positive side of it? not all migrants are criminals, even british born people too!!! These people balance the British economy!

And again we have Jill Riiter saying Britain need the hard working immigrants and the subject should be Xenophobic. Listen here Jill Ritter, please take your white guilt elsewhere. I am a hard working Scot putting in on average 60 hours per week. I am much more skilled than the position I have because I cant get a better job. I have lived abroad and mixed with many cultures and have never ever had a racist bone in my body. However I can clearly recognise the destruction to the souls of hundreds of thousand of British people caused by mass uncontrolled immigration. We are not racists because we want the flow of mostly unskilled non English speaking immigrants.

people like you actually make me sick. You live ina fantasy world that bears little resemblance to the housing estates across Britan these said. I know for sure you do not live in a council estate.

I think many polititians have taken a calculated risk that might pay off in a decade or two.

or three

I haven't a couple of decades left. Sod New Labour and their social engineering experiment. they are useless -
I expected more of the scots connections in london