According to The Telegraph, the UK’s Office for National Statistics announced that over 1 million immigrants moved to the UK between 2004 and 2007, attracted by the strong economy and the easy availability of low-skilled jobs that Britons did not want to take.   Its analysis of the Annual Population Survey showed that the numbers of people living in the UK who were not born here rose by 21% between 2004 and 2007, from 5.2 million to 6.3 million.

Much of the increase came from residents of the 'A8' countries that joined the EU in May 2004 – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.  Of these, two thirds were Polish, making Poland the third most common country of birth for immigrants living in Britain, after India and the Republic of Ireland.

Most of the new arrivals settled outside of the south of England, with the east of the country seeing a 34 per cent rise in its non-UK born population and both the north west and east midlands recording 32% increases.  In London, which has long been home to immigrants from all over the world, one in three residents was born abroad by 2007.

The ONS said: 'The size of the non-UK born population is increasing while the UK-born population has remained mostly constant.   “This increase is in part due to the accession of the A8 countries in 2004 to the European Union, and also from the large numbers of people resident in the UK from countries such as India and Pakistan,” the report says.

The ONS report is available online at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=6303 

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New Zealand’s The Press reports that their government is poised to cut the number of migrants entering New Zealand on temporary work permits, facing increased pressure to save Kiwi jobs during the recession.  At the time, the Government indicated it had no plans to limit the numbers heading to New Zealand on temporary permits, despite the Australian Government announcing it would cut 20,000 places from its skilled-migrant category to protect Australian jobs.

Coleman said he expected the Department of Labour would ensure that fewer migrants entered the country on temporary permits during the recession. “As you've got the recession getting worse, New Zealanders are increasingly available,” he said. “It's going to be a situation where temporary migrants won't be having their permits renewed and won't be getting new permits either, so there won't be new migrants coming in.”

New Zealand takes 45,000 permanent migrants each year, most through the skilled-migrant category. Thousands more arrive on temporary permits to work in industries where their skills are deemed by the NZ Labour Department to be in short supply.  Before the permits are issued, employers must prove to the department that they have searched for New Zealand workers for the jobs and that no available New Zealand worker could be suitably trained for the task.  

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