News Archive - February 2011

Britons 'losing confidence in UK immigration system'

04 Feb 2011 | Posted by Carl Thomas

A recent poll has suggested that people are concerned about how immigration is managed.

The poll, commissioned by the German Marshall Fund (GMF), found that 23 per cent of the British public believe that UK immigration is the biggest problem facing the country today.

However, Craig Kennedy, president of GMF, noted the survey also revealed that the more people are exposed to immigrants, the more positive they feel towards them.

Around 1,000 people from Canada, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain were questioned for the research.

In countries other than the UK, ten per cent or less of those surveyed cited immigration as their top concern.

However, immigration minister Damian Green said that it is not surprising that people have lost their confidence in the UK immigration system.

He explained that the country needs to be more selective in order to prevent "undue strain" being put on vital public services.

"That is why we are in the process of delivering major reform to bring immigration down to the tens of thousands with the introduction of a new limit on economic migrants from outside the EU, alongside new proposals to reform other routes of entry, including students, families and marriage," the minister remarked.