Posted on 02/27/2007 7:50:53 PM PST by Stoat
The number of Eastern Europeans flooding into Britain has soared to 700 a day.
Official figures show there are 579,000 Poles and other residents of the former Soviet Bloc registered to work here.
The total does not include the self-employed, children or partners of the migrants, who do not appear in the Government figures.
• Community work and tougher tests to earn citizenship
The true number is likely to stand at 800,000 - or one in every 75 people living in the UK.
It is the equivalent of a city the size of Leeds, the third biggest in the UK.
The migrants - as well as placing enormous pressure on schools and hospitals - are receiving up to £75million in benefits.
According to a Home Office report, 70,000 are receiving handouts such as tax credits, child benefit or council housing. It is a leap of 15,000 claimants in three months, or almost 30 per cent.
Most worrying for the Government is that the influx, which began with the controversial expansion of the EU eastwards in May 2004, shows no sign of slowing.
During the last three months of 2006, there were a staggering 63,000 new applications to join the worker registration scheme.
It is the equivalent of 700 a day, or 14 coachloads pulling into London's Victoria coach station.
Crucially, the total is 23 per cent higher than during the same period of 2005 - when 566 arrived every day - suggesting that Poles and other Eastern Europeans are keener than ever to move here.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "These statistics betray John Reid's utter failure to get a grip on the chaos in the immigration system.
"The Government assured us that no more than 13,000 immigrants per year would arrive from A8 countries (those that joined the EU in 2004). This figure completely blows that estimate out of the water. "Immigration can be of real benefit to the country but only if it is properly controlled, taking into account its impact on the economy, public services and social cohesion. This is demonstrably not the case."
The benefit payouts will be an embarrassment to the Government, which claimed they would be kept to a minimum.
Ministers insist most of those heading here are young men with no interest in receiving state handouts. But there are now 70,000 people in receipt of tax credits, child support and even council housing.
Once a migrant has been working here for 12 months, they are entitled to the same level of support as any British citizen. Word has also reached Poland of generous benefit payments to eastern Europeans with children - including a rule which allows workers to claim Tax Credits for children even if they do not travel to Britain and remain in their homeland.
There have been 533 successful applications for Income Support (£57.45 a week), 1,221 for Job Seeker's Allowance (also worth £57.45 a week) and 41 for State Pension Credit (which gives a guaranteed income of £114.05 a week.)
Some 45,252 claim child benefit (worth £17.45 for the first child and £11.70 for each further youngster), 22,685 are receiving Tax Credits (worth up to £5,200 a year) and 173 families have been given local authority housing. Some 615 are receiving other homelessness support. The total bill is likely to be £75million.
The figures pre-date the entry of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU, on January 1 this year.
Eastern European Ping
Poland Ping :-)
How about suggesting a policy for Great Britain...for every honorable and forthright Eastern European who comes in, ship out 10 Islamofascists.
Britain would soon be the nation that all others would be trying to catch up to.
How does 700 Eastern Europeans per day compare with the number of Muzzies born in Britain? I'd wager that 75% of the Eastern Europeans will make good citizens within less than a generation whereas 75% of the Muzzies won't. And, yes, I'm probably exaggerating . . . against the Eastern Europeans and in favor of the Muzzies.
You're probably right. ...it would definitely be interesting to see such a statistical comparison.
It's not a lot alarming to have immigrants from these Eastern Orthodox nations... because they are either law abiding and can easily integrate and more willing to integrate to the British society than the Muslims...
Agreed...I would much rather be living next door to a Polish family than a Muzzie one....I could be pretty darned sure that with the Polish family, we are working toward the same ultimate goals.
(and that minor point about not having to worry about my neighbor being a terrorist would be a definite plus)
Only a liberal could be stupid enough to have ever said or believed this.
But no, Britain wouldn't allow them in. How ironic:
England now opens its doors wide to Muslim terrorists and economic refugees, whose only contribution to Great Britain is the big drain on the country's economy, security, and social stability.
Doesn't make any sense to me.
Only a liberal could be stupid enough to have ever said or believed this.
Agreed. Unfortunately, our British Friends have to contend with far more than their fair share of Leftists.
An interesting comment from another thread by ccmay:
Great Britain Muslim fanatic works on trains (Publicly glorified suicide bombers)
Since the 1950's, Britain has been run by a very small, very homosexual, very Bolshevik class of over-educated civil servants, products of the elite boarding schools. They have imported hordes of ignorant, violent Third World parasites to live on the British taxpayer's dole and vote Labour at every election.
It is not that much of a stretch to predict the day when the English man in the street gets fed up with the elitist bilge shoved down his throat from on high, marches on Whitehall with pitchforks and cricket bats, and starts hanging bureaucrats from lamp posts. For the most part, they are traitors to England who would richly deserve it.
-ccm
The Poles will certainly assimilate better than the Muslims or the refugees from Hong Kong.
I'll bet that there will not ever be a single incident in Great Britain of a Pole, Czech, Hungarian, Rumanian, or Bulgarian Christian refugee setting off bombs on buses or on railways.
However, we will see many, many such tragedies in the next few decades involving British "citizens" who are adherants of Islam.
I'm wondering if this (or another) MSM paper would be as equally disposed to print a similar article detailing the immigration rates, reproduction rates, welfare rates and crime rates of Muslims to the UK, and to frame it in such a negative manner as this article on Eastern Europeans is?
Somehow I rather doubt it.
The Eastern Europeans, the Poles in particular, are not "a drain on the country's economic security". Quite the contrary, they're net contributors: mostly young, hard-working, with useful skills and not claiming benefits. Rather similar, in fact, to the situation with the Hong Kong immigrants which you describe.
I don't know a single Eastern European claiming benefits - and I know a few because my girlfriend is Czech.
To be honest I expect many Eastern Europeans will eventually go back to their original countries. That's the impression I get from the people I know.
The people from Hong Kong ended up in Vancover, Canada, isn't that right?
No you're not exaggerating. For one thing, Eastern Europeans believe in Western and U.S. ideals more than Europeans and Americans thesmelves seem to these days. If anything you're underestimating the boon to Britain of accepting these people. Many are highly trained, highly motivated, freedom loving people. To treat them as a bigger or even equal threat to Islamofanatic immigration is a$$anine.
That's good to know. Thanks for enlightening.
I'll bet that there will not ever be a single incident in Great Britain of a Pole, Czech, Hungarian, Rumanian, or Bulgarian Christian refugee setting off bombs on buses or on railways.
Nor a Hong Kong Chinese. Perhaps not all immigrants to the UK enter with the same intentions.
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