The proportion of eastern European immigrants who intend to settle in Britain forever increases five-fold within months of them coming here, research by Oxford academics showed today.

Just six per cent told the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) they planned to live in Britain permanently when they first entered.

Within six to eight months, the proportion intending to settle had reached 29 per cent, the report said.

"Women were more likely to have decided to stay than men, as were those with higher average earnings," the survey of 600 migrants found.

But researchers at Oxford University found only a third of those interviewed knew how to register with a doctor and 54 per cent had received information on the conditions attached to their immigration status.

It found 44 per cent were sharing a room with someone other than a partner, but some were living in overcrowded conditions by choice to save rent.

Four out of 10 said Britons treated them as an equals, but three out of 10 said they did not.

The interviewers, also based at Sussex University, spoke to people from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania - which joined the European Union in May, 2004 - Ukraine and Bulgaria.

The JRF also published two other reports on immigrants in the UK.

One showed that racial tension was often driven by struggles for resources such as employment and housing.

JRF director Julia Unwin said: "These three reports suggest that the Government should value migrants as more than simply an economic resource, and must continue to place importance on ensuring their integration into wider British society, even when their stay is expected to be temporary."