More Migration Messiness in Europe

Migrants are coming into Europe, are being deported from Europe, and are now thinking about returning to the old dangerous routes from Libya to Italy. But that's not all that is going on in Europe. The historic pattern of East to West migration within Europe continues, as the Eurozone crisis continues to push migrants to the UK. As the BBC notes, some of this is economic and some of it is demographic (and the two, of course, go together). The story comes from a new report by the Migration Observatory team at the University of Oxford.

Over the past five years the number of EU nationals living in the UK has gone up by almost 700,000 to 3.3 million.

The report said 49% of the 700,000 were from Poland and Romania, but Spain, Italy and Portugal accounted for 24%. 

 Another long-term factor that could influence the rate of migration to the UK is the birth rate in Europe.

The population of 20 to 34-year-olds in the six top nations has fallen by more than six million - or 15% since 2006.

If those fall continue, it could lead to a corresponding decline in the number of workers willing to travel to the UK as demand for them at home, and wages, increase.

Of course, the latter issue may well be altered by the continued immigration from the Middle East and North Africa. Hang on, it's going to be a rough ride.