Number of Romanian, Bulgarian Workers Surges in UK

New figures from Britain’s Office of National Statistics show that the number of workers from the two countries has now exceeded 150,000 for the first time.

The fresh data said 153,000 Romanians and Bulgarian were working in the UK in the second quarter of this year.

This is up 13,000, or just over 9 per cent, on the same time last year, up by 47 per cent on 2012 and up by 59 per cent on the figure for April to June 2011, when there were just 96,000.

There was also a leap in immigration from the other Eastern European countries, which joined the European Union 10 years ago, which are known as the A8.

Workers from Poland, Lithuania and the rest of the A8 hit 861,000 at the end of June, up 58,000 in three months and up 178,000 year-on-year.

The total number of workers in Britain from across all EU countries was 1,836,000 in the latest figures, a leap of 187,000, or 11 per cent, in just three months.

Up until the end of 2013, immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria could only come to work in Britain in a limited set of circumstances but restrictions were lifted in January 1.

Figures for the first three months of the year, showed a marginal fall from 144,000 to 140,000, but the latest data suggest a delayed reaction to the lifting of restrictions.

The anti-immigration campaign group MigrationWatch has said it believes that 50,000 Bulgarians and Romanians will arrive every year for the next five years.

The figures are a headache for Britain’s Conservative-led coalition government, which has made reducing immigration a key pledge – and could boost growing demands for Britain to leave the European Union altogether.

Many Conservative, and some Labour, MPs, maintain too many new jobs are going to...