Around 56,000 Romanian and Bulgarian workers are likely to migrate to Britain next year, according to a new research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), published on Tuesday.

The left-wing body, often described as Tony Blair's favourite thinktank, estimates that around 41,000 Romanians and 15,000 Bulgarians will come to work in Britain in the first year after their countries join the European Union. This estimate is based on what happened after the last EU enlargement in 2004.

"Although Romania and Bulgaria are poorer than the countries that joined last time, most migrating Romanians and Bulgarians will want to go to Italy, Spain and Greece because they are closer and have higher numbers already resident," says the report of the thinktank.

It calls on the government to allow labour market access to Romanian and Bulgarian nationals to after their accession because the impacts on the UK labour market are likely to be positive.

IPPR associate director Danny Sriskandarajah says: "Workers from these countries will join an increasingly important eastern European workforce currently doing hard-to-fill jobs in key sectors and regions."

About 13,000 Romanians and Bulgarians are already in the UK, a 2001 census showed.

There are 86,700 Romanians and 9,600 Bulgarians already in Italy. There are 59,300 Romanians and 27,100 Bulgarians already in Spain. There are 26,600 Romanians and 38,900 Bulgarians already in Greece.

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