Britain to miss annual migration target

UK: British Prime Minister David Cameron is going to miss his target of reducing annual net migration back to the “tens of thousands” by 2015, a think-tank warned Sunday.

Issuing its forecast for 2012, the Institute for Public Policy Research predicted that Britain's net migration -- the difference between the number of people entering and the number leaving -- would be 180,000 in the year ahead, down from a record 252,000 in 2010. The IPPR said the government's best hope of getting it below 100,000 would be to make Britain less attractive to migrants and drive away migrants from the European Union who were already here. Workers are free to come and go as they please within the 27-member EU.

The IPPR also warned that Britons still had little confidence that any government would get to grips with mass immigration. Immigration and the rising population regularly top surveys of British voter concerns and it remains a thorny political issue.

AFP