Migration Trends – New Booklet Gives Insights into Migrant Population

Current and future migration trends in the UK are examined in a booklet published today by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It describes, among other things, how numbers of foreign nationals working in the UK rose strongly to top a million for the first time in 1998, and by 2005 had reached 1.5 million (4.1 per cent of all in employment).

Titled ‘Globalisation, population mobility and impact of migration on population’, the booklet brings together work done by Professors John Salt, of University College, London, and Phil Rees, of the University of Leeds, as well as statistics and analyses produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In 2004, an estimated 223,000 more people migrated to the UK than moved abroad – a net inflow much higher than the previous year, when an estimated 151,000 more arrived to live here than left.

Numbers of Central and Eastern European (CEE) nationals in the foreign work force have grown rapidly, reaching 169,000 - 11.2 per cent - in 2005. The EU15/EFTA countries make up 32 per cent of foreign workers.

In 2003, more than one-fifth of all in-migrants (114,000) came to the UK for work-related reasons and had a specific job to go to, and more than a quarter came to study here (135,000).