LONDON, U.K - The number of people from minority backgrounds who live in England and Wales went up by 2.5 million in eight years, figures revealed yesterday.Estimates said that 1.75 million of the rise came about because of immigration, while 734,000 was the result of rising birthrates. The increases meant the minority population increased by 37 per cent between 2001 and 2009.
According to the Office for National Statistics, one in six of the population is now from an ethnic minority or white non-British background. In the eight year period studied, the population of white foreigners rose by 550,000 as Eastern Europeans and migrants from Commonwealth countries poured in.- Numbers grew by a further two million with people from black and Asian backgrounds thanks to immigration, rising birthrates, and asylum seeking.
The ONS said its figures, based on immigration counts, census data and birth and death records, had been found to tally with its existing population estimates.- The figures cast new light on the last Labour government's immigration policies, which added three million to the population between 1997 and last year.
Sir Andrew Green of Migrationwatch(left photo) said, "This is the legacy of Labour's mass immigration policy now appearing in the official figures. They have, whether deliberately or not, changed the face of Britain. If immigration continues on anything like this scale, we are heading for a population of 70 million in 20 years' time, absolutely contrary to the frequently expressed wishes of the British people.
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