Who are the new migrants?
Out of 27,906,000 people in the UK workforce, 1.5 million were born overseas. Many of them arrived a long time ago, or came to join family members, rather than just to work.
In 2006/7, just over 713,000 people who were born abroad applied for new national insurance numbers. Of these people, 222,760 were from Poland and 49,330 from India.
New arrivals to England may be here:
- to work
- to join family members
- to seek refuge
- to study
- to visit.
There are rules about who can go on to council waiting lists or allocation schemes for housing, which exclude some new arrivals such as visitors, students and people arriving from outside Europe to work. The same applies to local authority temporary housing for homeless people.
These rules do not apply to housing associations when they offer housing themselves.
Find out about who can go on to council allocation systems and get temporary housing when homeless.
Find out about housing associations and new arrivals in the UK.
If local authorities or housing associations refuse housing because of their immigration status to people who have an entitlement, they may be discriminating against them. This is unlawful and can have serious consequences.
Find out about housing benefit eligibility.