The UK is home to almost five million people who were born outside the 27 EU member states, more than almost any other European country, new figures have shown.
Only Germany and France have a greater population of immigrants born outside of the EU than the UK, which has an estimated 4.9 million foreigners living in the country.
There are also 2.3 million immigrants from other EU countries living in Britain, according to the research.
The provisional data, from the EU statistics office Eurostat, suggested foreign citizens made up seven per cent of the UK population.
While Germany had the highest number of immigrants, Luxembourg had the highest proportion with 43 per cent of the population born abroad.
Overall, 2.5 per cent of the EU population were people living in another European country.
Well, this is the legacy of its Colonial Empire. Similar is the case with France. In Germany the Turks for instance were invited as workers for its booming (in the past) industry.