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The UK’s membership of the European Union (EU) meant that it was signed up to the ‘free movement of workers.’ This policy meant that anyone in the EU had the right to move to any member country to work.

During the early 2000s when Britain’s economy was booming, hundreds of thousands of people from all over Europe came to work here, mainly in service industries. The largest number of immigrants came from Poland and they worked mainly in the service sector. Although very large numbers of British people also migrated to other EU countries, the number of people coming in became greater than the number leaving.

Supporters of the EU free movement of people argue that the economic boom of the early 2000s was partly thanks to migrant workers taking lower paid jobs in the service sector and paying taxes to support care for an ageing UK population. Opponents argue that too many people were coming into the UK and that housing stock, schools and hospitals could not cope. All sides of the argument, including those who argue for stricter immigration controls, agree that some immigration was needed to keep the economy going.