New official figures showing UK attracting fewer Eastern Europeans pose challenge for incoming points based migration system

26 February 2008

Figures released today by the Home Office indicate that work related migration from the eight central and eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 (the so-called A8 countries) has clearly passed its peak. This says John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), presents the Government with a potential policy dilemma as it prepares to launch its new points based migration system for curbing immigration from outside the EU.

Dr Philpott continues:

“The tide of immigrants from the A8 countries has clearly turned as more find jobs at home or elsewhere in Europe. The government's official barometer shows that the number of eastern Europeans applying to work in the UK fell by 20,000 between 2006 and 2007. And the final quarter of 2007 saw the smallest quarterly inflow since the first quarter of 2005 when the UK jobs market was a powerful magnet for work hungry Poles.

“The slower inflow may in part reflect somewhat weaker recruitment activity toward the end of 2007 though is more likely due to more eastern Europeans finding it easier to work closer to home. The rate of inflow will probably fall further this year though by how much will depend on the relative buoyancy of the UK and wider EU economies in the wake of the global economic slowdown.

“Either way, these latest figures demonstrate that employers can't take for granted the availability of a steady supply of willing and eager workers from Poland and other less developed EU states. The irony is that this is becoming apparent just as the Government is about to introduce its new point based system for managing migration from outside the EU which will make it harder for employers to hire migrants for the kinds of routine less skilled jobs that the vast majority of A8 migrants have in recent years been happy to do.”

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