Claims that the UK is being inundated by immigration have been proven inaccurate after statistics revealed the number of citizenships granted had fallen dramatically in the year up to 2008.

The Foreign Office revealed in a report last week that warnings of overcrowding made by right-wing pressure groups, notably the BNP, were not supported by the facts which show increased outgoing and decreased incoming migration.

In the well-publicised BBC Question Time show last week, BNP leader Nick Griffin said that the time had come for Britain to shut its borders as the country was becoming overcrowded. Griffin also made claims the day after Question Time that ethnic cleansing had resulted in London no longer being considered as a British city.

However, findings suggest that the immigration issue is under control although still relatively high when compared with other European countries according to the report made by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

In 2008, Britain let in 441,000 foreign nationals as compared to 460,000 in 2006. In the same time period some 237,000 foreigners departed the UK, up from 173,000. With the number of citizenship grants falling from 165,000 to 130,000 in the year the net result for these figures alone is close to 90,000 people leaving the country.

The number of applications for UK citizenship has also decreased in the recent past as fewer people have attempted to move to Britain in the midst of the recession.

The findings refute recent use of immigration as a worrisome issue. In recent years the number of Britons who have called immigration a concern has risen from 5% to 30%, suggesting the ongoing media and political debate is stimulating negativity. Racially motivated attacks have increased by 20,000 this year so far and by nearly 30% overall in the past five years.

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