Record levels of international immigration into London and the South East have created a substantial ‘knock on’ effect across much of the southern half of England and in Wales, says a new paper out today from think tank, Migrationwatch.

And the principle finding is that Britain is becoming a nation of “parallel societies” in which the white population is increasingly separated from black and Asian communities.

There has been substantial migration from areas of high ethnic population in the capital to those parts of the country with predominately white populations, says the report. In the period 1993-2002, 606,000 more Londoners moved out of the city than came in from elsewhere in the UK. In the same period a net 726,000 immigrants arrived in London.

Of the outflow from London, almost 300,000 moved to the South West during the decade with a further 181,000 going to the East of England.

The pattern of whites moving out and ethnic minorities moving in also appeared to be taking place in Manchester and Birmingham, the report said.

Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch, said: "[This] places enormous stress on housing, education, health and social services in immigrant areas, while at the same time the South-West, South-East and East Midlands are having to expand facilities rapidly to cater for the outflow from London. This, in turn, puts strains on their infrastructure, particularly housing, transport, education, health and the environment."

“It is self evident that the development of increasingly ‘parallel societies’ in some of our major cities, with self-segregation between the various cultures, is an extremely undesirable development in terms of long-term community relations.”