Heading home, half of capital's migrants

A new map, detailing migration patterns into the capital, reveals how many workers have moved into which boroughs since the EU's expansion in 2004.

But a report, carried out by think-tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, suggests these numbers are dropping and half of the migrants have now left.

Hillingdon, Ealing, Hammersmith, Westminster, Camden and Southwark have seen the largest numbers of eastern Europeans move in.

Figures released to the Evening Standard under the Freedom of Information Act support this, showing that by last year a total of 90,190 people had been granted permission to work in the capital under the Home Office Worker Registration Scheme.

Westminster had the largest number at 16,000, followed by Camden with almost 8,000 and Ealing with 5,500.

The study by the IPPR claims the capital's labour force, particularly in these areas, has been significantly augmented by workers from the countries involved.

Half of them are Polish, with Lithuania providing the next largest number. The rest are from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania.

The research team says the situation is similar nationwide with significant numbers travelling to areas such as Scotland and the South West which have not traditionally attracted newcomers.

The group examined data from the Labour Force Survey and national insurance number applications as well as the Worker Registration Scheme - on which applicants are required to register as soon as they start working in Britain. It also studied the International Passenger Survey and questioned Poles who had returned home.

The research revealed that more than a million immigrants from the 10 countries had come to Britain since 2004 with roughly 20 per cent moving to London. Some 500,000 have since departed.

The evidence serves to highlight the huge gulf between the reality and government predictions over the numbers of eastern Europeans who would move to Britain.

The Government originally predicted that between 5,000 and 13,000 migrants would arrive.

According to the latest study, there were 665,000 people from the 10 countries living in Britain in the last quarter of last year - an increase of 548,000 since the first quarter of 2004. But the research team predicted that rapid economic development in the EU states would mean fewer people coming to Britain over the next few years.

"The vast majority of Polish migrants come to the UK for economic reasons, but leave because they miss home or want to be with their friends and family in Poland," the report said. "Four in 10 of returned Polish migrants we surveyed think better employment prospects in Poland would encourage Poles living in the UK to return to Poland for good."

The pound's devaluation in relation to the Polish currency will narrow the gap between potential earnings in Britain and Poland, while the pool of possible migrants is set to shrink due to lower birth rates in the Eighties.