WITH regard to recent correspondence on immigration, it is important to note that migration goes both ways. One in ten Britons now lives abroad, and another emigrates every three minutes.

Hundreds of thousands have settled in Spain and France, mainly to retire. It seems we are importing young people who can create wealth and pay taxes, and exporting pensioners who will expect health care into old age; but I do not hear French or Spanish people grumbling about the strain on their health services.

Immigrants are vital to our own NHS. Thirty-eight per cent of hospital doctors qualified abroad, which saves the taxpayer a fortune - it costs £250,000 to train a doctor from scratch, and just £10,000 to prepare a foreign-trained doctor for practice in the UK.

Cambridgeshire's chief constable is understandably concerned about translation costs and the Home Secretary has proposed more stringent English language tests for migrant workers, as "they need to integrate into our country, learn English and use our language"

(Echo, Sept 10).

Why then is the Government cutting funding for ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) courses, which used to provide free English classes for immigrants and asylum seekers?

Pete Winstanley, Durham.