Migration Watch report -

Changing Primary Schools in England: 1998 - 2010

1. This paper examines the impact that immigration, much of it from non English speaking countries, has had on our primary schools in the period 1998 to 2010.

2. It examines England as a whole, individual regions, and three groups of Local Education Authorities (LEAs) - London Boroughs, the largest urban boroughs outside London, and the remaining LEAs in England. It also projects the numbers to 2018.

3. The following are the main findings:

a) In total, between 1991 and 2008, there was a net increase of over 2.5 million in long-term immigrants arriving in the UK from non English speaking countries, mostly to settle. There was a net inflow of 2 million of them between 1998 and 2008.

b) The effect has been intensified by the rapid increase in the number of foreign born women of reproductive age. In 2007 this total was nearly 43% higher than in 2001. In contrast, the number of UK born woman of reproductive age was nearly 3% lower in the same period.

c) In the period 1994 to 2009 the proportion of births to foreign born women rose from 14% to 25%.

d) In the period 1998 to 2010, the proportion of children in primary schools in England for whom English was not the mother tongue nearly doubled to 16%, or over half a million out of 3.2 million children.

e) In inner London in 2010 55% of all primary school pupils did not have English as their first language.

f) In outer London the proportion of pupils without English as a mother tongue almost doubled from 22% to 39%.

g) In six out of the nine regions and in England as a whole, the percentage of children without English as a mother tongue almost doubled from 8.5% to 16%.

h) Our projection suggests that the percentage of primary school children in England without English as a mother tongue will increase to 22.7% in 2018, or almost 830,000 - a 60% increase on current numbers.

Introduction

4. Net immigration into the UK from overseas increased very significantly with the election of the Labour Government in May 1997. In the seven years from 1991 to 1997, it averaged around 41,000 each year; thereafter, in the eleven years to 2008 it averaged around 180,000.

5. Most of this net immigration came from countries where the predominant language is other than English – the European Union (excluding the Irish Republic), ‘New Commonwealth’ countries in Africa and Asia, and other countries outside Europe with few historical or cultural links to the UK – for example, the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the seven years from 1991 to 1997 such net immigration averaged almost 60,000 each year, but in 1998 and thereafter it increased over threefold, averaging almost 200,000 each year to 2008. In total, between 1991 and 2008, there was a net increase of over 2.5 million long term immigrants from non – English speaking countries arriving in the UK, mostly to settle. Figure 1 below shows the approximate trend of net migration from Non-English Speaking Countries between 1991 and 2008.

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http://www.migrationwatchuk.com/briefingPaper/document/210