Immigration has hurt anti-poverty strategy, says minister

from The Earth Times

LONDON - UK immigration minister Liam Byrne has admitted that record immigration into the country has "deeply unsettled" society. In a pamphlet designed for the Policy Network think tank, Mr Byrne said migrants had undermined efforts of the Labour government to eradicate child poverty.

"The political risk for any government is that if you fail to solve this paradox you could lose your job," he wrote, adding that migration has to be in the national interest. Mr Byrne is due to release a new points-based system that intends to restrict immigration of those people whose skills are in demand in the UK. This system may start from the new year.

Writing that child poverty and inequality were rife because of record number of migrants, Mr Byrne said schools were suffering because it was hard to increase the standard where majority of students had English as a second language.

"It is true that a small number of schools have struggled to cope, that some local authorities have reported problems of overcrowding in private housing and that there have been cost pressures on English language training, but the answer is in action that is simultaneously firm and fair," he pointed out.

Mr Byrne also disputes claims that the immigration debate is all media driven. ''During the 1990s, the UK did change from being a country of net emigration to being one of net immigration - 2.4 million people left Britain and 3.4 million came in," he wrote.

His claims will be substantiated by Office for National Statistics data, which is due to show that the number of migrants increased to 200,000 in 2005, at least four times more than when Labour assumed power in 1997.