Felix the Cat
01-06-2006, 03:38 AM
Births to immigrants in Britain reach record high (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/05/content_4014785.htm)
LONDON, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Babies born to immigrants make up the majority of births in some British cities, according to Migrationwatch, the immigration think-tank.
One in five of the 640,000 births in England and Wales in 2004 was to a mother born outside Britain. The figure has risen by more than a half in the past decade and reaches a record high since data collection on the ethnicity of births was introduced in 1969, The Times reported on Thursday.
In some London districts, 70 percent of births are to women who were not born in Britain, said Migrationwatch.
However, the average number of children born to each ethnic minority family has fallen in the past 15 years, as immigrant groups adopt the average family size in Britain.
Migrationwatch claims the birth trend is increasing segregation, and blames Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities for "chain migration." It said this was "intensifying the formation of ghettos and setting back integration".
Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, admitted that there was no evidence to prove that levels of immigration had an impact on the degree of integration. But he believed that the very high rates of immigration in recent years "are creating areas in which children with two UK-born parents are in a minority."
This poses serious difficulties for effective integration as there will increasingly be no core culture with which to integrate," he added.
But a spokeswoman for the Commission for Racial Equality said: "Migrant and ethnic minority populations are still below 10 per cent."
More than half of Britons believe that immigration has made Britain a better place to live, according to a poll for Reader's Digest magazine. Seventy percent said that their everyday experience of immigrants had been positive.
LONDON, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Babies born to immigrants make up the majority of births in some British cities, according to Migrationwatch, the immigration think-tank.
One in five of the 640,000 births in England and Wales in 2004 was to a mother born outside Britain. The figure has risen by more than a half in the past decade and reaches a record high since data collection on the ethnicity of births was introduced in 1969, The Times reported on Thursday.
In some London districts, 70 percent of births are to women who were not born in Britain, said Migrationwatch.
However, the average number of children born to each ethnic minority family has fallen in the past 15 years, as immigrant groups adopt the average family size in Britain.
Migrationwatch claims the birth trend is increasing segregation, and blames Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities for "chain migration." It said this was "intensifying the formation of ghettos and setting back integration".
Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, admitted that there was no evidence to prove that levels of immigration had an impact on the degree of integration. But he believed that the very high rates of immigration in recent years "are creating areas in which children with two UK-born parents are in a minority."
This poses serious difficulties for effective integration as there will increasingly be no core culture with which to integrate," he added.
But a spokeswoman for the Commission for Racial Equality said: "Migrant and ethnic minority populations are still below 10 per cent."
More than half of Britons believe that immigration has made Britain a better place to live, according to a poll for Reader's Digest magazine. Seventy percent said that their everyday experience of immigrants had been positive.