British workers DO lose out to migrants, reveal official figures

12 April 2012

The number of Britons in work has dropped by nearly half a million since the onset of mass immigration from Eastern Europe, figures showed yesterday.

They provide the first evidence that British workers are being pushed out of the labour market by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Poles and other Eastern European workers.

According to the breakdown released to MPs, the number born in this country in jobs fell from 24.4million in 2004 to 23.9 million last year.

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Eastern Europeans scour the job market. The number of Britons in work has dropped by nearly half a million since the onset of mass immigration from Eastern Europe

Since 2001 the decline in British-born workers has been 495,000, most of it after 2004.

The wave of Eastern European immigration came with the entry into the EU of Poland and seven other Eastern European countries at the beginning of April 2004.

Over the four years since then at least 700,000 migrant workers have arrived, and the total number of foreign-born workers in the economy has gone up by 1.1million.

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, demolish claims by Labour ministers that the majority of newly-created jobs in recent years have gone to British workers.

They also offer further ammunition to critics of Gordon Brown who deride his promise of "British jobs for British workers".

Some of the decline in Britishborn workers may be unconnected to immigration - for example there are more teenagers staying in school to 18 or going to university.

It may also be linked to growing emigration as families move out to Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., France and Spain.

But the scale of the fall suggests that more British-born workers have given up competing with immigrants- who are prepared to work harder for lower wages - and joining the 5million who depend on benefits.

Sir Andrew Green of the Migrationwatch think tank said: "This is the first clear evidence that their is a relationship between the extent of unemployment among British workers and the growth of employment of Eastern Europeans.

"The Government have denied that there is a significant relationship but these figures say it all."

Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis said: "The figures undermine yet again Gordon Brown's unwise pronouncement of British jobs for British workers."

Last week a cross-party report from the Lords economics committee found that immigration has "little or no positive impact" on living standards for the majority.

The latest figures show that the proportion of the British-born population who have jobs went down from 75.7 per cent in 2003 to 75.2 per cent last year.

Since 2001, the numberof British citizens born abroad who are in work went up by 248,000, the number of Eastern Europeans with jobs went up by 381,000, and the number of other foreigners in employment rose by 480,000.

Overall, the number of those in work went up by 600,000.

Cambridge economist Professor Robert Rowthorn, who analysed the figures, said:

"It seems fairly obvious that immigration from the first wave of new EU member states has had a negative impact on native employment."

The Department of Work and Pensions insisted the proportion of Britons in work had gone up over the past decade.

However, DWP officials concentrate on British citizens - which does not take account of immigrants who have been given citizenship.

The independent Statistics Commission says the best picture of who is in work is given by figures on those who were born in Britain.

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