The British government thinks it's 'impossible to build a cohesive society' when 'immigration is too high'

Europe is currently experiencing the worst refugee crisis since World War II, but don't expect Britain to welcome in thousands of more migrants.

British Home Secretary Theresa May is going tell the country later today exactly why the Conservative government is not going to follow in the footsteps of Germany, which welcomed in thousands more migrants and refugees - a move that could earn Chancellor Angela Merkel a Nobel Peace Prize.

May will say that while the refugee crisis has inflamed arguments over migration, people have to realise that the situation is far more complex as Britain already has hundreds of thousands of migrants coming into the country each year.

"Their desire for a better life is perfectly understandable, but their circumstances are not nearly the same as those of the people fleeing their homelands in fear of their lives," May will say in her speech. "There are millions of people in poorer countries who would love to live in Britain, and there is a limit to the amount of immigration any country can and should take.

"While we must fulfill our moral duty to help people in desperate need, we must also have an immigration system that allows us to control who comes to our country. "Because when immigration is too high, when the pace of change is too fast, it's impossible to build a cohesive society."

Net migration, the number of people who migrated to the UK, less the number who left, is at a record high. Migration rose by 50%, 318,000 people, in 2014 - the biggest increase since statistics began in 1970. A total of 641,000 people came to the UK in 2014. This figure does not included illegal migrants.

The United Nations said on October 1 that it was expecting 700,000 migrants and refugees to reach Europe via the Mediterranean sea this year. The same amount again is expected in 2016.

May says that Britain has to look at the longer-term picture as to how mass immigration could harm society.

"It's difficult for schools and hospitals and core infrastructure like housing and transport to cope," she will say.

"And we know that for people in low-paid jobs, wages are forced down even further while some people are forced out of work altogether.

"But even if we could manage all the consequences of mass immigration, Britain does not need net migration in the hundreds of thousands every year."

Immigration is a huge issue for Britain and has led to increasing support for newer right-wing parties like UKIP.

Reducing the number of migrants entering the country is one of the reasons the Conservative party was voted back into office this year. Prime Minister David Cameron previously said that he would not "cave in" and abandon his target of reducing net migration below 100,000.