UK is Europe's top destination for immigrants: We attract twice as many as France



UK accepted more immigrants in 2011 than any other country, with 566,044

Number two country, Germany, accepted 489,422 immigrants: 76,622 less

Amount of immigrants in Britain each year have set record highs since 2004



Records were broken when Poland and other countries joined EU

The EU statistics arm, Eurostat, reported the numbers in a study

Since 2007, UK has been place to escape economic crises in Spain, Greece

Britain remained the greatest magnet for EU migrants and migrants from other non-EU countries – even after other countries opened their doors to workers from Eastern Europe, according to latest official figures yesterday.

The UK continued to draw in more than any other country in 2011, when citizens of Poland and fellow eastern nations finally won the right to work in Germany and other wealthy EU nations.

The UK accepted 566,044 immigrants, compared to 489,422 who went to Germany, according to Eurostat.



The EU statistics arm added that the number coming to this country was twice that who went to France – estimated at just 267,400.



The figures cover the first full year of the Coalition, which pledged to reduce net migration to 1990s levels.

Net migration is the rise or fall in population after both immigration and emigration have been counted.



The promise would mean halving the latest published rates of net migration for the year to June 2013, which show an 182,000 increase.

Immigration into Britain hit record highs after 2004, when Poland and seven other Eastern European countries joined the EU.



They were given immediate freedom to work in Britain without restrictions by Tony Blair’s government.

Only Ireland and Sweden did the same, with the result that more than a million Eastern Europeans came to work in this country while few took jobs in other major EU economies.

Germany and others followed Brussels rules and only opened their labour markets to citizens of the Eastern countries seven years after they joined the EU.

However, according to Eurostat, although Poles and other Eastern workers did flood into Germany, its immigration totals stayed below those of Britain.

‘The UK reported the largest number of immigrants in 2011, followed by Germany, Spain, and Italy. These four member states together accounted for 60.3 per cent of immigrants to EU states,’ its report said.

Migration to Germany went up from 346,200 in 2009 to close to half-a-million two years later.

Latest British figures show 503,000 immigrants arrived in the 12 months to June last year.

Eurostat also said that Britain gave citizenship to 177,600 immigrants in 2011 – more than any other EU country.

Since 2007, the UK has also been the destination of workers escaping the economic crises in Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy.



However, Spain still attracts high numbers from Spanish-speaking Latin America.

Passengers arriving at Luton Airport from Romania on the first day since the lifting of travel restrictions

Passengers check-in for a Wizzair flight from Henri Coanda airport, Bucharest, Romania to arrive at Luton airport on January 1st, 2014