Eastern European Migrants 'Shun' Recession-Struck Britain

by Charlotte Cardingham
Published on 24 February 2009
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Eastern European Migrants 'Shun' Recession-Struck Britain

The number of Eastern Europeans looking to move to Britain is down 40% as the credit crunch takes its toll.

As the prospect of life in recession-struck Britain becomes far less lucrative, the number of Eastern European migrants moving to the UK has dropped by over 40%.

The official immigration figures, published today by the Office of National Statistics show that just 29,000 work applications were received from individuals looking to make the move from Eastern Europe in the final three months of 2008.  This is down from 53,000 applications received during the same period of 2007.

Furthermore, the vast majority of Easter European workers coming to Britain are younger than before – 78% fall into the 18-34 age group – and travelling alone - only 11% of applicants reported bringing dependents with them.

Until recently Eastern European workers have proved a valuable resource to many British companies. However, as the full impact of the ‘credit crunch’ takes its toll on an already-struggling economy and mass-unemployment becomes a very real issue, the prospects for those looking to make their fortune are significantly less rosy.

According to Immigration Minister, Phil Woolas, this is the lowest number of applications to work in the UK received since ten additional European countries, including Poland, Czech Republic, Malta and Cyprus, became members of the EU in 2004.

Source

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Your Comments

Maggie
on 25 Feb 2009 22:28
It's unfair to lump together all of Eastern European countries. Some of them are police states, some aren't. Find out more before you voice.
 
JLN
on 25 Feb 2009 14:27
One would expect this to be true for all countries. People these days move for economic reasons: if they believe that no job awaits them they will just stay home. As for police states, did you look at where they are coming from?
 
Nick Taylor
on 25 Feb 2009 05:50
Well maybe the numbers are falling off because everyone who wanted to move the the UK already did a couple of years back.
 
Jonesin
on 24 Feb 2009 19:57
Maybe people just don't want to move to a police state that spies on its citizens? Makes sense to me.