Romanians leapfrog Irish to be the second largest group of foreigners in Britain – behind only the Polish
New stats show a huge increase in the number of Romanian citizens living in the UK
ROMANIANS now make up the second biggest non-UK nationality in Britain after a staggering 25 per cent rise in migrants in the past year.
Official figures today revealed how EU free movement has changed the make-up of towns and cities up and down the country.
The Office for National Statistics said the total non-UK population leapt by 200,000 to 6.2million in 2017.
And there are now 411,000 Romanians living in multi-cultural Britain – almost equivalent to the entire size of Leicester. An 83,000 increase in the year was enough to see Romania leapfrog Ireland into second place.
Polish remains the most common non-British nationality – with an estimated one million.
There are more Poles than any other nationality in every single region of the UK – from 108,000 in the east Midlands to 63,000 in the south West.
Alp Mehmet, vice chair of Migration Watch, said: “There is still no sign of a net outflow of EU-born people as a result of Brexit.
“Indeed they are still coming in significant numbers and contributing to a population increase which is simply unsustainable.”
The ONS showed how immigration has transformed towns across the UK with migrants now accounting for 29 per cent of the population in Boston, Lincs – up from just 3 per cent in 2007.
East Staffordshire’s migration population has soared from 3 per cent to 17 per cent.
Nearly six out of every 10 people living in Newham, East London – 57 per cent – were born outside the UK.
The ONS pointed out there are more Indians and Pakistanis than Romanians by country of birth – but many have since taken up British citizenship.
RUSH FOR PASSPORTS
THE Brexit vote appears to have triggered a huge spike in EU nationals seeking a British passport.
Some 40,014 applied in the year to the end of March, nearly double the previous year, official figures reveal.
A total of 14,137 were from the EU8 bloc, including Poland and Hungary.
Ex-PM David Cameron lifted immigration controls on Romania and Bulgaria in 2014 and numbers have soared ever since.
Experts claim many Romanians and Bulgarians have come to the UK to fill the gaps left by Poles beginning to return home. There were just 78,000 Romanians living in the UK in 2010, putting it 15th below Bangladesh.
Separate Home Office figures today revealed 148,000 National Insurance registrations were given out to Romanians in the year to March - a third of all those handed out to EU nationals.
DEPORTED CRIMINALS FALL
HOME Secretary Sajid Javid faces calls to act after shock figures revealed a sharp drop in foreign criminals being booted out of the country.
The Home Office said the number of foreign national offenders removed in the 12 months to March fell 11 per cent to 5,630.
Last year, Romania threatened to block Brexit altogether unless Theresa May gave its country’s residents a guarantee of UK citizenship.
The first Romanian to arrive in the UK to work after Mr Cameron relaxed controls – Victor Spirescu – died in a car crash this January.
The man – dubbed the “poster boy” for Romanian immigration – was found to have taken cocaine when he lost control of a car near Newport Pagnell.
THE SUN SAYS
HOW come vast numbers of migrants still flock to a Britain which supposedly became racist overnight on June 23, 2016?
Did the 200,000 net new arrivals last year not get the Remoaners’ memo?
Or is the reality different?
Yes, Britain voted to control its borders, like any nation beyond the EU.
But we are still the most welcoming country on Earth.
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