Our Future

These figures don't alter the big picture (that Native Brits will be a minority by the end of the century) but they do illuminate it rather well.

As of 2001, 7.5% of the population - one in twelve - were born abroad. Since then there's been a massive influx from Eastern Europe. The incomers have a much higher birthrate then the natives (for example, 25% of London's population were born abroad, but births to foreign-born mothers accounted for nearly 50% of 2003 births, and the 7.5% of the UK population born abroad, the overwhelming majority of whom are in England, accounted for 19% of English births in 2003 - ONS statistics, P75).

The figures on 'countries of birth' (is 'South America' a country ?) are interesting too. As we are all told, we need immigrants to drive our economy forward.

That's presumably why immigration by Albanians is up by nearly 1,400% in ten years, as Albanians become prominent in certain areas of the British economy. The other countries with the largest increases are those ecomomic powerhouses the former Yugoslavia (which includes Kosovo) and Sierra Leone.

As for the figures on economic success - well, once again we all know that if immigrants (who, remember, are vital to our economy) don't do very well here, then it must be down to the racism of the natives.

So we see that 66% of recently arrived Indians are employed, but only 40% of Bangladeshis and 12% of Somalis. We also see that settled Kenyans, Ugandans, Zambians, Zimbabweans, Malawians, Malaysians, Zambians, Sri Lankans, even French, make up a greater proportion of the high-paid than the Native Brits. Perhaps the culture of the communities from which people come is actually more important in determining success than the dreadful racism of the natives.

It must also be remembered that these figures do not tell us about numbers of
a) British-born children of immigrants
b) emigration rates for Native Brits

There's a lot in this report - I may post more.

Other posts on migration -

Swamp Thing

The Writing On The Wall

Goodbye England