Gravesham is home to the largest number of migrants in Kent - new statistics have revealed.

MP Adam Holloway has questioned whether “receiving ever more people” into the UK is the answer to the migrant crisis.

An official report published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that 17 per cent of Gravesham’s population were born outside the UK.

Dartford, Sevenoaks and Maidstone recorded the third highest population numbers at 11 per cent.

Mr Holloway said: “In Gravesend I have noticed huge changes over the last 10 years with people arriving from all over the world as well as the European Union.

“The UK has thrived on immigration, but when is enough, enough?

“I completely agree with the need for action - but l also think the Prime Minister is completely right when he says that receiving ever more people is not the answer.

“There are hundreds of millions of people in the borderlands of the European Union and on the other side of the Mediterranean suffering oppression or wanting a better life for their families.

“I believe that we should make it clear that you will not be allowed to live in Europe if you come into Europe through the back door.”

Since 2012 to 2014 the number of Polish nationals in the UK has increased from 713,000 to 853,000.

The number of Pakistani nationals increased from 181,000 to 210,000 and Romanian nationals increased from 108,000 to 175,000.

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Gravesham is home to a large Sikh community who settled in the borough after the Second World War and immigrated during the subsequent decades.

Chairman of Gravesham Labour party, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, said: “Approximately 10 per cent of the Gravesham population is Sikh.

“Within the county we are blessed to have a very integrated community - like me, those born in Britain feel and are British.”

News Shopper: Cllr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi hopes to be Labour's victorious candidate in 2015.

Chairman for Labour party Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

Gurvinder Sandher, of the Kent Equality Cohesion Council added: “Immigration isn’t new. 

"The work we do is to promote positive community relations and to promote our shared British values. 

"We pride ourselves on the good community relations enjoyed in the borough and feel other parts of the country could learn from the work that has been done by different partners and agencies over many years to ensure this is the case.”

ONS uses the UN’s definition of the term migrant or long-term international migrant, defined as “a person who moves from their country of usual residence for a period of at least 12 months.”

The report estimates that across the whole of the country one in eight people living in the UK were born abroad, which equates to approximately 8,277,000 people or 13 per cent of the total population.

In recent months the question of control over net migration levels - the difference between immigration and emigration - has been brought been brought to the fore of the international community.

Another document published in August by the ONS, The Migration Statistics Quarterly Report (MSQR), shows that of all migrants coming to the UK between March 2014 - March 2015, 99 per cent were immigrating to the UK for work-related reasons.