London, Jan 2: A research by Migrationwatch has pointed out that more than 1.3 million immigrants have come to work in Britain in the past 10 years even though there are 3.5 million British people on Jobseeker's Allowance or incapacity benefit.

A generation of low-skilled British workers risks being trapped in unemployment by record immigration, the research suggests.

The report claims to explode the myth that foreign workers are simply doing work, which others do not want or filling newly created jobs.

It says a combination of generous benefits and immigrant labour willing to work for low wages will create ''an underclass of discouraged British workers."

Despite rising unemployment, migrant workers continue to pour into Britain to fill job vacancies.

The report says more effort should be expended on getting our own population into work rather than encouraging immigration.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: ''We keep hearing that we need immigrants to do the jobs that the British won't do.

''It has been suspected for some time that benefit levels are a real disincentive to take work that is on offer and our research spells out why this may be so."

He added: ''An important factor is that wages are now so close to benefits that there is very little financial incentive for unskilled British workers to find a job.

''By contrast, Poles have very strong financial motivation.

''On the minimum wage in Britain they are earning four to five times what they would earn at home.

''By living in multi-occupancy, they can afford to send considerable sums of money back to their families."

According to the National Bank of Poland, Polish migrants in the UK are sending home about £9 million a day.'

The Migrationwatch study reinforces the findings of research by Frank Field, former Labour Welfare Reform Minister.

He showed immigrant workers were trapping British-born people in unemployment.

The higher the level of immigration in an area, the harder it is for the unemployed to come off Jobseeker's Allowance.

The study found that across the country 20 per cent of the variation between areas in the numbers leaving benefit was due to immigration. In the southwest this rose to 30 per cent.

A recent Statistics Commission report revealed more than 80 per cent of new jobs since 1997 had gone to people born outside the UK, the Telegraph reported. (ANI)