Indians, Largest Foreign-Born Ethnic Group in UK

Bangalore: Indians are the largest foreign-born ethnic group in England and Wales, surpassing the Irish. The number of Indians went up from 4.56 lakh in 2001 to 6.94 lakh a decade later, an increase of over 52 percent, said UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS)'s latest census. Comparatively, the number of the Irish fell to just 4 lakhs in 2011 from 4.7 lakh a decade ago.

As per Oxford University's Migration Observatory deputy director Scott Blinder the rise in foreign-born population from 9 percent to 13 percent in 2011 is "a very noticeable change,'' as reported by Kounteya Sinha for TNN. Blinder said of Poland and India that “These two countries alone account for more than a quarter of the increase in the size of England and Wales' migrant population."

The ONS data said 10 countries where migrants are most likely to have been born are India, Poland, Pakistan, Ireland, Germany, Bangladesh, Nigeria, South Africa, U.S. and Jamaica.

It was noted that largely foreign-born population increased from 46 lakh to 75 lakh. The highest overall increase was among Poles, whose numbers increased from 58,000 in 2001 to 5.79 lakh, which is nearly a 10 fold increase.

The number of Pakistan-born people increased from 3.08 lakh to 4.8 lakhs, while the people of Bangladeshi origin increased by 39 percent to 2.1 lakh. The number of Nigerians increased by 120 percent, Germans 12 percent, South Africans 45 percent, Americans 23 percent, and Jamaicans 10 percent.

Blinder informed that over half of the foreign-born population has arrived in the past ten years.

He also said "By country of birth, the number of people born in the Republic of Ireland has fallen by more than 10 percent and that the population of Nigerian-born people in England and Wales has more than doubled - making Nigerian-born people the seventh largest group," as reported by TNN.

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