Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah

Institute for Public Policy Research

November 2007

Migration into Britain

London’s place in the wider picture

2

Lots of immigrationTotal migration to and from the UK, 1966-2005

-600

-400

-200

0

200

400

600

800

19

66

19

68

19

70

19

72

19

74

19

76

19

78

19

80

19

82

19

84

19

86

19

88

19

90

19

92

19

94

19

96

19

98

20

00

20

02

20

04

Mig

ran

ts (

tho

us

an

ds

)

Inflow Outflow Balance

Source: International Passenger Survey and Total International Migration, Office of National Statistics

3

Number Per cent

Worker Registration Scheme 194,953 48.6%

Work permits 86,191 21.5%

EU15 and EFTA 35,200 8.8%

Working Holiday Makers Scheme 20,135 5.0%

Highly Skilled Migrant Programme 17,631 4.4%

Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme 15,455 3.9%

Domestic servants 10,100 2.5%

UK ancestry 8,260 2.1%

Sectors Based Scheme 7,401 1.8%

Au pairs 2,360 0.6%

Science and Engineering Graduates Scheme 2,699 0.7%

Ministers of religion 530 0.1%

Total 400,915 100.0%

Foreign labour inflows by route of entry, 2005

Source: Salt and Millar 2006

4

London is home to 41% of immigrants

non British Isles 01

172 - 1000

1001 - 2000

2001 - 3000

3001 - 4000

4001 - 5000

5001 - 7500

7501 - 10000

10001 - 15000

15001 - 20000

20001 - 32128

West

Yorkshire

Manchester

Birmingham

London

Total non British Isles: 4,301,280

Born outside British Isles, 2001

5

London’s immigrant population up 44%non British Isles 91-01

-4445 - -1

0 - 250

251 - 500

501 - 1000

1001 - 2000

2001 - 3000

3001 - 4000

4001 - 6000

6001 - 8000

8001 - 15081

West

Yorkshire

Manchester

Birmingham

London

Net change: 1,147,905

Change in non-British-Isles, 1991-2001

6

But London is not always the magnet

Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) applications,

May 2004-June 2006

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

Q2

2004

Q3

2004

Q4

2004

Q1

2005

Q2

2005

Q3

2005

Q4

2005

Q1

2006

Q2

2006

nu

mb

er

of

regis

trati

on

s

London Outside London

7

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

Nort

h E

ast

Nort

h W

est

York

shir

e &

Hu

mbe

rsid

e

West

Mid

lands

Ea

st

Mid

lands

East of

Engla

nd

Inner

London

Oute

r London

South

Ea

st

South

West

Wale

s

Scotland

N.Ire

land

British Isles born 'Settled' foreign born 'New' foreign born

Proportion earning < ½ UK median earnings, 2000-4

8

% of people earning above £750 a week

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Nort

h E

ast

Nort

h W

est

York

shire

Hum

bers

ide

West

Mid

lands

East

Mid

lands

East of

Engla

nd

Inner

London

Oute

r

London

South

East

South

West

Wale

s

Scotland

Nort

hern

Irela

nd

British Isles born 'Settled' foreign born 'New ' foreign born

9

0

5

10

15

20

25

£1-99 £100-199 £200-299 £300-399 £400-499 £500-599 £600-699 £700-799 £800-899 £900-999 £1000+

Per

cen

tag

e b

y p

op

ula

tio

n c

ateg

ory

British Isles born 'Settled' foreign born 'New' foreign born

Source: Labour Force Survey

Gross weekly earnings from main job, 2003-04

10

The Chelsea phenomenon

• London doing well in attracting highly-skilled, highly-mobile‘gold-collar’ workers.

• Key to success of some sectors and services

• Generally fuelling employment growth

• Making important contributions to the public purse

• Clustering in certain areas, e.g. 45% of Kensington & Chelsea residents were foreign-born; 18% of London’s Americans live in K & C

• Causing some resentment amongst locals

• May well move on with changing economic fortunes

11

The East Ham phenomenon

• London doing well in finding the migrant workers to do dirty,

difficult and dangerous jobs (one recent study found that 90% of

341 low-paid workers surveyed were migrants; many are

actually skilled almost half of above sample had acquired

tertiary level qualifications before moving to the UK).

• Key to success of some sectors and services

• Generally fuelling employment growth (directly and indirectly)

• Making important contributions to the public purse

• Clustering in certain areas, e.g. 38% of Newham residents were

foreign-born; 15% of London’s Pakistanis live in Newham

• Causing some resentment amongst locals

• May well move on with changing economic fortunes

12

Challenges ahead• Counting migrants and funding the services they use

• Responding to high mobility: e.g. schools, integration,

community cohesion

• Responding to super diversity: 1 x 15 vs. 15 x 1?

• Olympic hurdles: meeting labour needs while dealing

with irregular migrants

• Segregation, ghettos and ‘white flight’?

• Dealing with new tensions

• Convincing the rest of the country that diversity works