RPT-Half EU immigrants to UK have left-survey

                                
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 By Paul Majendie
                                
 LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - One million immigrants from
Eastern Europe have arrived in Britain since 2004 -- but half of
them have already returned home, a report showed on Wednesday.
                                
 A think-tank study also suggested the arrival of future
immigrants from 10 new European Union members would slow as
economic conditions improved in their home countries.
                                
 The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) findings
highlighted the gulf between the actual cross-border flow and
initial British government predictions that only a few thousand
would be tempted to seek work in the country.
                                
 "Four in ten of the returned Polish migrants we surveyed
think that better employment prospects in Poland would encourage
Poles living in the UK to return to Poland for good," it said.
                                
 Eight states joined the European Union in May 2004 --
Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
Slovakia and Slovenia. Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007.
                                
 The research, released to the BBC, showed there were 665,000
people from the 10 new EU members living in Britain in the last
quarter of 2007.
                                
 "We estimate that some 30,000 fewer migrants arrived in the
second half of 2007 as did in the second half of 2006," the IPPR
said.
                                
 With other European Union countries changing their
restrictions on new members, the think-tank forecast that many
more would-be migrants might be tempted to move elsewhere.
                                
 Declining birth rates might mean there was a smaller pool of
migrant workers and the weakening of British sterling has
resulted in the gap narrowing in potential earnings.
                                
 The pound, it said, had fallen by about 25 percent against
the Polish Zloty since early 2004.
                                
 The British government had originally predicted that up to
13,000 migrant workers would arrive after the 2004 accession but
admitted later that its calculations had been well wide of the
mark.
                                
 They have fanned out across the economy, working as
everything from plumbers and waiters to seasonal fruit pickers.
                                
 The new wave of immigrant workers had sparked fears that
Britain's health and education services could be overwhelmed.
                                
 But a 2005 report from the think-tank concluded after the
first  wave of immigration: "Our research shows that immigrants
make an important fiscal contribution to the UK and pay more
than their share. They are not a drain on the UK's resources."
  (Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)