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Phil Woolas has said that the British public should be "confident" that immigration is under control.
The immigration minister's statement follows the release of figures from the Office for National Statistics which show that arrivals from the 'A8' countries in central and eastern Europe have fallen by more than a quarter.
Other figures revealed that immigration from eastern Europe fell by 28 per cent, from 109,000 to 97,000 in the year to December last year.
And the number of eastern European immigrants returning home went up by more than 50 per cent in the same period.
The UK population has now reached a record level of 61 million, according to the figures, with some 408,000 more people living in the UK than in 2008.
Reasons for the increase – twice the rise of 2001 – include the credit crunch and an increase in fertility rates.
Chief statistician at the ONS Karen Dunnell explained: "You have to say that probably the unemployment and the economic situation, given that quite a lot of people from the A8 countries are coming to work, is probably having an impact."
Woolas suggested that the statistics proved that migrants were coming to the UK to work and then returning home.
He said: "The fall in net migration is further proof that migrants come to the UK for short periods of time, work, contribute to the economy and then return home.
"Our new flexible points based system gives us greater control on those coming to work or study from outside Europe, ensuring that only those that Britain needs can come.
"Britain's borders are stronger than ever before. Our border controls in northern France are stopping record numbers of migrants reaching our shores - 28,000 in 2008.
"We are rolling out ID cards to foreign nationals, we have introduced civil penalties for those employing illegal workers and from the end of next year our electronic border system will monitor 95 per cent of journeys in and out of the UK."
He added: "The British people can be confident that immigration is under control."
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