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The has been a rise in the number of people born overseas and resident in the UK, according to the latest data.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that 6.5 million people born overseas were resident in the UK in the year to June 2008, an increase of 290,000 on the previous year.
The annual population survey also indicated that there were 4.1 million foreign nationals resident in the UK in the year to June 2008, up from 3.8 million in the year to June 2007.
However, figures published by the Department for Work indicated a fall in the number of National Insurance numbers being issued to foreign nationals.
In the 12 months to September 2008 some 720,000 NI numbers were allocated to adult foreign nationals, seven per cent fewer than during the previous year.
Other Home Office statistics shower that the number of applications for asylum, excluding dependants, was two per cent lower in the last three months of 2008, at 6,735, compared with the same quarter of 2007.
In the fourth quarter of 2008, some 4,720 initial asylum decisions were made, excluding dependants, an increase of three per cent from 2007.
And 68 per cent of initial decisions were refusals, while 20 per cent were granted asylum and 12 per cent were granted 'humanitarian protection' or 'discretionary leave'.
However, there was a reduction in the number of people being removed from the UK.
The number stood at 16,525 in the fourth quarter of last year, two per cent down on the same period in 2007.
There was a fall of 16 per cent to 2,570 for those leaving who had claimed asylum, but an increase of one per cent to 13,950 for non-asylum cases.
Immigration minister Phil Woolas said: "The number of eastern Europeans coming here to work is dramatically falling and research suggests that many of those that came have now gone home.
"Nevertheless, the government is doing everything it can to ensure migration is working for the British labour market and the country as a whole."
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