The numbers game - The Guardian 31st October 2007

A business school staple is that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. But when it comes to immigration, the official measurements are being exposed as deeply unreliable. First, in September, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) increased its estimate of how far migration was pushing up the population by nearly a third. Then, on Monday, ministers admitted that there were 300,000 more foreigners in the workforce than previously claimed. Then - extraordinarily - they last night confessed that, counter to Monday's claims, half the new jobs created since 1997 have gone to immigrants. The influx of recent arrivals from eastern Europe had already pushed immigration up the political agenda. Now ministers appear able neither to measure nor manage - and that is a recipe for a political explosion.

Link to Article