1,000-plus East Europeans register for work

The numbers are necessary to enable individuals to work legally and also to claim benefits to which they are entitled. The large influx of individuals was revealed in recent talks by a professor from the University of Chichester.

Chris Gaine, who is a professor of applied social policy, has carried out the only academic study to discover how the new immigration is affecting the Sussex coast.

The official figures he used showed that, from January 2007 to February 2008, 1,006 people from the A8 countries that joined the European Union in May 2004 registered for NI purposes using PO21 and PO22 addresses. This is equal to about four every working day.

The largest portion of them by far came from Poland with 812 adults.

Next came 68 Hungarians with 50 Latvians and 35 Lithuanians the other largest groups.

The total was completed by 19 Slovakians, nine Romanians, seven Czechs and a single Estonian.

The wave of newcomers seeking a better life in Bognor than in their home country dominated the 1,202 NI numbers issued in that period to people of a different nationality from Bognor postcodes.

The others included students as well as individuals from overseas who have only just registered for work in spite of living here for years.

Prof Gaine said he believed 7,000 people from the A8 countries had settled in the Arun and Chichester districts in the past four years.

About 1,000 more have come from other countries. Most are aged between 20 and 34. Some 300 of the total are dependents. The new arrivals peaked in 2005-06.

But he said it was difficult to be precise because those who left the area were excluded from the data along with some seasonal workers. Those who worked illegally were also hard to track.

Worker registrations between May 2004 and September 2006 showed most of those employed in Arun were in factories or on farms.

Other popular occupations were kitchen and catering assistants and care assistants and home carers. The immigrants had a positive economic impact, Prof Gaine said.

They did every kind of minimum wage work. Most were on less than 6 an hour.

They were generally better educated than British people on minimum wages and their schooling was funded by their home countries.

They filled a shortage of younger people able to work and were generally fit and healthy, he stated.

There were three main impacts of their presence in the area '“ housing, police, health and schools.

For housing, there was a need to ensure living standards were acceptable. Overcrowded housing could lead to poor health. Policing figures showed the greatest impact was felt in some untaxed and uninsured vehicles. Schools were seeing some migrant children. This was likely to continue, added Prof Gaine, but it was not a flood.

His comments came in two public talks held at the university's Bognor and Chichester campuses.

About 85 people attended them in all.