Eastern Europeans who came to Britain are returning home in droves, new figures show.

But the era of the Polish plumber is unlikely to be over as tens of thousands more immigrants are still arriving.

The number of migrants returning to the A8 countries which joined the EU in 2004 more than doubled last year as the recession began to bite.

Provisional figures from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) showed a total of 56,000 Eastern Europeans left Britain in the year to September.

That compares to only 25,000 who left the previous year. But because 100,000 arrived, there was still an overall increase of 44,000.

More recent figures released by the Home Office indicated even sharper declines in new Eastern European workers as the economy went in to freefall.

In the first three months of this year, 23,000 A8 workers applied to join the Workers Registration Scheme — less than half the total of the same period last year.

Campaigners calling for “balanced” migration said the population was still on course to hit 70million.

Net migration — the numbers arriving minus those leaving — was 147,000 in the year to September.

The figures also showed tens of thousands more British citizens are leaving the country than arriving.

In the year to September 2008, 165,000 Brits emigrated, while 74,000 arrived — a net outflow of 91,000.

At the same time Home Office figures showed an increase of more than 50% in the number of immigrants granted citizenship.

There were 54,615 awards in the first three months of the year.

New rules increasing the amount of time it will take to earn citizenship come into force next year.

The Home Office said the increase was the result of the need to clear a backlog created when the policy was first announced.

Tim Finch, head of migration at the centre-left think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research said: “The clear headline from these figures is that after years of rising net migration into the UK, the trend is going into reverse.

“Immigration is stabilising, and emigration increasing. This is what we would expect at a time of economic downturn and with new tighter controls on immigration beginning to bite.

“It’s striking that the great influx of Eastern Europeans of the last five years is tailing off dramatically.”

Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, commented: “This small reduction in immigration brings it close to the official projection so the population of the UK is still on course to hit 70million by 2028.”

“We need action not talking to get our population under control.”