London, July 13 (IANS) More immigrants settle permanently in Britain than in any other European country, a study has said.

Nearly 397,900 foreign nationals decided to live in Britain in 2009, says the study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The study said the increase was largely down to family members coming to stay with those already in Britain, and the large number of foreign students, reported the Daily Mail.

The OECD report - titled "Trends in International Migration" - found Britain was one of the few countries where migrant workers were less likely to end up unemployed than local people.

Andrew Green, chairman of think-tank MigrationWatch UK, said the figures showed Labour made Britain a soft touch for immigration.

"Labour's loss of control of immigration has left us with a situation where our population is growing at the fastest rate for 50 years," he said.

The number of permanent migrants in Britain is exceeded only by the US, where 1.1 million people settled permanently in 2009.

France had only 178,700 new settlers and Germany 197,500.