Immigration Boom Under Labour Changed Face of Britain Faster than Any Major Country Except Italy, Oxford Experts Reveal

The immigration boom under Labour led to the face of Britain changing faster than any major nation except Italy, a study by an Oxford University think tank revealed.

During the five-year peak of the influx, the UK’s migrant population soared by 22 per cent – double the average of G8 countries, figures from the Migration Observatory show.

Over the past two decades, Britain’s foreign-born population has increased from 3.8million – or 7 per cent of the total population – in 1993 to almost 7 million, or 12 per cent per cent in 2010.

During the same period, the number of foreign-born residents without British citizenship doubled from just under two million (4 per cent of the population) to over four million (7 per cent).

Net-migration – the number arrivals minus those leaving – increased from 564,000 during the five years from 1996-2000, to 923,000 in 2001-2005 and 1,044,000 during 2006-2010.

In 2010, net-migration reached 252,000, its highest level for a single calendar year on record.

But it is the period between 2000 and 2005 – a period of an open border policy during and rapid  expansion of the EU – that immigration really spiked.

Only Italy, which experienced a 44.6 per cent rise in immigration, saw a higher rate in the developed world.

But, after more restrictions were introduced in 2005, the growth rate of the migrant population in the UK was just over 10 per cent.

It was still higher than the G8 average – but somewhat lower than 14 per cent rate of the 15 EU countries that existed prior to 2004.

This group – with 21.4 per cent rise – had only a slightly lower level of immigration growth that the UK between 2000 and 2005.

Although, experts believe Italy’s enormous spike has skewed these figures.

For example, France saw only a 3.4 per cent rise in immigration during the period, according to data obtained by the United Nations.

Russia’s immigration growth rose only by 1.6 per cent.

Figures also show that as the global population has increased considerably in the last two decades, so too has the number of international migrants.

The number has increased from 156million in 1990 to 214million in 2010.

The comparison with G8 countries compares other high-income nations this group, which also includes Russia, Italy, France, Canada, the U.S. Germany and Japan.

For all the G8 countries, with the exception of Japan, migrants are defined as foreign-born residents in the data.

In the data for Japan, migrants are defined as foreign citizens.

Alp Mehmet, of pressure group Migration Watch, told Mail Online: ‘This underlines what we have been saying about Labour’s mass immigration policy.

‘It also shows why it will be so difficult to get immigration back down to sensible levels.’