Migrants from Eastern Europe claim more benefits and earn lower wages than people born in Britain, a new report has revealed.

Foreigners from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Africa were also more likely to claim benefits and be unemployed than those born in the UK.

But migrants from Western Europe, North America, India, Australia and New Zealand did better than those from Britain, the study found.

Migrants from Eastern Europe claim more benefits and earn lower wages than people born in Britain, a new report by MigrationWatch has revealed. The group's chairman Lord Green of Deddington is pictured

Some 4.9million migrants were more likely to be unemployed, receive state handouts or smaller pay packets in the UK, compared to 2.4million from countries that had a better chance of being in work, according to research by MigrationWatch.

The report, compiled using figures from the Office for National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey, revealed that Eastern European migrants had higher rates of claiming tax credits than the UK-born population.

It also found 70 per cent of Eastern European migrants earn less than the typical earnings of a UK-born worker.

Lord Green of Deddington, the chairman of MigrationWatch, said: ‘This analysis clearly demonstrates that sweeping claims implying that all immigration to the UK is beneficial cannot possibly be right.

‘Any sensible policy should take account of the real differences in economic characteristics between migrants from different parts of the world.

This analysis demonstrates that sweeping claims implying that all immigration to the UK is beneficial cannot possibly be right Lord Green of Deddington, the chairman of MigrationWatch

‘If immigration policy has been intended to attract only “the brightest and the best”, it has clearly failed, with a very large number of migrants earning less or claiming more than the British-born.

‘The clear message of this research is that immigration can be reduced substantially while permitting entry to those migrants that our economy really needs.’

David Cameron is under mounting pressure to tackle the issue after the revelation in May that net migration hit 318,000 in 2014 – the second highest total ever recorded – left the Prime Minister further than ever from meeting his pledge to reduce it to ‘tens of thousands’.

He has unveiled measures to curb non-EU migration, including restricting work visas to genuine skill shortages and specialists, but he is also seeking a deal with Brussels on ways to deter EU citizens from travelling to Britain for work.

Failing: David Cameron is under mounting pressure to tackle the issue after the revelation in May that net migration hit 318,000 in 2014 – the second highest total ever recorded

Britain has faced unprecedented levels of migration since Tony Blair’s Labour government introduced a heavily-criticised ‘open door’ policy in 1997, which led to vast numbers of people from ten countries from behind the old Iron Curtain, including Poland, heading here to live.

MigrationWatch’s report, compiled using statistics from the Office for National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey, reveals migrants from Eastern Europe were more likely to be in employment than people born in the UK, reflecting the fact many are of prime working age.