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Poll: Britons hostile to unemployed immigrants

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-16 10:39

LONDON - More than three quarters of British adults believe immigrants should be asked to leave the country if they do not have a job, a survey for the Financial Times showed on Monday.

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The FT/Harris survey said a majority of those questioned also opposed the right for other European Union citizens to work in Britain.

Unemployment in Britain is at its highest for a decade and the tighter job market has put a renewed focus on the use of overseas workers. British construction workers protested earlier this year over the hiring of foreign contractors.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas told the Financial Times the survey's findings were not a surprise and that he was working to give assurances to the public.

The FT said 54 percent of those questioned opposed the legal right of people from other European Union states to work in Britain. The paper said this opposition to legal migrant labour was higher than in Germany, France, Italy and Spain which was also polled by Harris.

Harris Interactive polled a total of 6,538 adults across the five countries.