Immigration fuels poverty and fails schools

Tuesday, 18th May 2010

Mass immigration is fuelling poverty and leading to declining education standards according to two separate reports.

Former Labour Minister Frank Field said in a Radio 4 interview yesterday that Britons would continue to be put out of work if immigration remained at the levels it was under Labour.

“If this Government had, as the last Government had, an emphasis that work is the way out of poverty, you cannot go on having an immigration policy that was, to all intents and purposes, an open-door policy,” said the backbencher, who has been in talks with David Cameron.

“Now we know the Government says it’s going to tighten up on this front, but we still have five times the net figures coming in than going out.”

And separate data published yesterday by the Department of Education revealed that English is not a first language for more than 43% of pupils at Bradford primary schools – a situation that is mirrored in cities across the UK.

The figures, which also show that 31% of secondary school pupils in the area speak English as a second language, have justified fears that teachers are struggling to maintain high standards of education and that English-speaking pupils are being held back unfairly.

MigrationWatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said: “This is clear evidence of the impact of immigration on our society. It also underlines the need for the new Government to get a hold of this without delay.”