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No rise in new emigrants to Britain

By Noreen Bowden | November 24, 2008

Figures from Britain show that there is no significant rise in the numbers of new emigrants arriving from Ireland for the first time to Britain in the first half of this year.

The Irish Times is reporting that 5,100 Irish citizens registered for national insurance numbers between January and June. This is consistent with the 9,000 to 10,200 people who had registered during each of the four years

The report notes, however, that the numbers do not show emigrants who may be reactivating a number they were previously allocated. Any emigrants returning to Britain after working there previously would not be showing up in these figures.

Among those Irish registering, 58% were men; 44% were aged 18 to 24 and 43% were from 25 to 34. 40% went to London, 11% went to Scotland, and 8% were in southeastern England.

The article quoted Joe O’Brien, policy officer at Crosscare Migrant Project as saying that the figures reflected his organisation’s experience:

“I would think a lot of the people being let go at the moment are eastern Europeans, and there has been no increase among the Irish who come to us looking to go to England. We haven’t seen it, and we haven’t heard the organisations in London saying it either.”

See the article on the Irish Times website.

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