"One quarter of Coventry residents now born outside of UK"

[dutchman]

Latest government figures show city has highest percentage of non-UK born residents in West Midlands



More than one in four Coventry residents were not born in the UK, according to the latest government figures.

An estimated 92,000 of the city’s 342,000 population in 2015 were born outside of the United Kingdom according to numbers released this week by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

That means 26.9 per cent of those living in the city were born in other countries.

The figures mark a 73 per cent increase in the number of non-UK born residents living in the city compared to 2005 when 46,000 of the 296,000 population (15.5 per cent) were born in another country.

A rise in population from 296,000 to 342,000 over the ten-year period is also exactly in line with the 46,000 increase in the city’s non-UK born population.

Coventry now has the highest proportion of non-UK born residents in the West Midlands - 5.2 per cent more than Birmingham, which is second in the table.

The English average for citizens born outside of the UK was 14.6 per cent in 2015, compared to 10.4 per cent in 2005.

Coventry has seen its non-UK population rise from 15.5 per cent to 26.9 per cent in the same ten-year period.

Across Warwickshire the proportion of residents born overseas has increased by even more than in Coventry since 2005 with 5.2 per cent having been born overseas in 2005 compared with 9.3 per cent in 2015.

Nuneaton and Bedworth saw the biggest percentage increase in the number of non-UK nationals living in the area. It was a 185.7 per cent increase with 7.1 per cent of the population born in another country.

Stratford had the next highest rise at 182.5 per cent - with 7.5 per cent of its residents having been born abroad.

Guidance on the figures from the ONS explains that students living in private accommodation for more than six months are counted in the population figures. However, those living in halls of residence are not.

Sabir Zazai, from the Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre, said: “I think that the government should move away from arbitrary migration targets.

“They should be scrapped in favour of a system which favours highly skilled workers. Coventry relies on highly skilled workers.

“We also need to remove international students from the migration figures, that would paint a slightly different picture for Coventry.”

[rebbonk]

You can't absorb that number of people without it affecting your local culture. But this article raises far more questions than it answers.