The influx of immigrants into the EU from the 10 eastern European accession countries may be starting to push down wages among low-paid workers, and leading to a rise in unemployment among unskilled workers, the prime minister has been told by one of his closest advisers.
Tony Blair was given the politically sensitive information by Lord Turner at a seminar in preparation for a major lecture today on the future of work. The lecture is one of a series of valedictory addresses being given by the prime minister.
Concerns over the impact of immigration are understood to be shared by ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions, even though the government's official economic analysis has not yet shown a clear link between falling pay levels and immigration from eastern Europe.

Lord Turner, a former chairman of the Low Pay Commission and author of the government's landmark report on pensions, told Mr Blair that the latest evidence suggested that migrants were beginning to push down wages at the lower end of the income scale. They were displacing some less skilled workers, making it more difficult to persuade some of the long-term unemployed to seek work - partly because the immigrant workers were more willing to work unlawfully for less than the minimum wage.............

http://www.guardian.co.uk/immigratio...046235,00.html