UK MINISTER: BRITAIN'S POPULATION MAY REACH 70 MILLION DUE TO IMMIGRATION
(WHICH MEANS IT ALREADY HAS)

London, England (AHN) - Following the recent wave of Eastern European immigrants moving to Great Britain after the European Union's expansion in 2004, British ministers have announced that because of an "incoherent" immigration population, the U.K.'s population might surge to 70 million people in 50 years.

Government adviser Lord Adair Turner, who in his examinations in demographic changes, says the Southeast region of England will be the hardest hit, and that an increase of 10 million new residents would be 4 million more than previous estimates.

Lord Turner has called for an open debate on immigration policy and warned no party wanted to admit there were winners as well as losers to opening more doors to immigrants.  According to the Daily Mail, Lord Turner explains, "The undoubted winners from immigration are immigrants. High levels of immigration of unskilled people will be good for higher income people who will buy their coffees and their haircuts at a slightly lower price."

"The economic dis-benefits are that high levels of unskilled immigration are bad for unskilled workers and I think to deny that is nonsense - it just flies in the face of all economic theory."

Lord Turner adds, "We were aware on the Low Pay Commission that if immigration continues at high levels that could limit our ability to increase the minimum wage."

"On the other hand, the best form of immigration policy for our economy is almost certainly selective skilled immigration, but that has an ethical issue about cream-skimming the skills of underdeveloped countries."


IRELAND'S POPULATION AT HIGHEST LEVEL IN 135 YEARS DUE TO IMMIGRATION

The Irish Republic's population has reached its highest level in 135 years with 4.23 millions, according the census figures released by Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Wednesday.

The last time Ireland's population reached over 4 millions was in 1871, when the census recorded 4.1 millions (then including Northern Ireland).

The census, taken in April 2006, shows a rise of 8.1 percent from the last census in April 2002 with 3.9 millions, although figures relating to nationality and ethnicity are not due to be published until next year.

The results on nationality show that the proportion of foreign nationals resident in Ireland has increased from 6 percent in 2002 to 10 percent, or 400,000, CSO officials said.

This figure is similar to countries with a long history of immigration, such as the United States and Britain, they said.

In this year's census, about 1.5 million forms were sent to homes around the country, and the forms were translated into 11 foreign languages to ensure there would be a good response from foreign nationals living in Ireland, they said.

The foreign languages were Arabic, Czech, Chinese, French, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and Spanish.