Fifty Years Of Immigration Mapped: How Blair’s Decision To Open The Borders To Eastern Europe Changed The Face Of Britain

Flows of migration into the UK used to be dominated by ethnic minorities from Commonwealth countries - mainly the Caribbean, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India - but since 2001 has been overwhelmingly from Eastern Europe

Overall, there are 7.5 million people currently living in England and Wales who were born outside the UK – making up some 13 per cent of the population - with most from India, Bangladesh and Poland

• More than a third of Britain's foreign-born population are now from Europe, an official study published today shows
• This includes over half a million migrants born in Poland, 100,000 migrants from Lithuania and 80,000 from Romania
• Almost one in eight people in the UK were born abroad and the biggest 'ethnic minority' is now 'non British white'
• Previously Britain's migrant population was dominated by ethnic minorities from Commonwealth countries

More than a third of all migrants living in Britain are now white Europeans - including over half a million Poles - a new government study has revealed.

Overall, there are 7.5 million people living in England and Wales who were born outside the UK – making up some 13 per cent of the population.

Daily Mail UK reports:

But where previously Britain’s migrant population was dominated by ethnic minorities from Commonwealth countries - mainly the Caribbean, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India - almost a third are now registered ‘white’ and moved to the UK from the continent.

Before 1981, 485,000 migrants moved to the UK from the Indian sub-continent - more than twice the number of Europeans. Between 1981 and 2000, the numbers arriving from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh had fallen slightly to 420,000 - but were still more than those moving to the UK from the continent. 

However, in the years after 2001 the number of migrants from the EU rocketed. Overall, around 1.5million migrants moved to the UK from Europe - compared to just 600,000 from south Asia.

Most of the European workers living in the UK arrived after 2004, when Tony Blair opened Britain's borders to the bloc of eight former Communist countries in eastern Europe.

Of the 2.1million migrants from Europe living in the UK, 528,000 are from Poland, 100,000 from Lithuania and 80,000 from Romania, an analysis of the 2011 census published this morning has revealed.

According to this morning’s Office for National Statistics study – 94 per cent of the half a million Poles in the UK arrived between 2001 and 2011, following the country’s accession into the European Union.

Alongside eastern European migrants, there are also 130,000 migrants from France, 135,000 from Italy and 80,000 from Spain.

The wave of migration from the former Communist countries in eastern Europe means the largest foreign ‘ethnic minority’ in the UK is now non-British or Irish ‘other white’.

Of the 2.1 million people registered as white and foreign born, more than 70 per cent arrived in the UK between 2001 and 2011.

The ONS said this reflected the ‘substantial increase in migrants following the number of Central and Eastern European countries joining the European Union in 2004’. 

Before the eastern European surge, most of the immigration into Britain came from the Commonwealth.