Immigration was a major issue at the referendum in June 2016 on Britain leaving the European Union and it hugely influenced the voting at the time. While there has since been a change in people’s movement from the continent to the UK with numbers dramatically declining, there has however, been a rise in the number of people from outside the EU countries arriving in the UK.
Net immigration has reached a new peak with 745,000 more people moving to the UK than departing last year, official figures have shown. The Office for National Statistics said its net migration total for 2022, which had previously been estimated at a then record figure of 606,000, had been revised upwards after census returns showed it to be at a significantly higher level than previously thought.
The statisticians said the rate of migration had slowed since then with the most up-to-date figures covering the 12 months to the end of June showing a net inflow of 672,000 migrants. But the numbers will bring new pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – who has been criticised for focusing on small boat arrivals rather than the overall scale of migration – to find ways to bring the figures down.
The statistics came as separate figures showed that rising migration has also triggered a record 578,000 jump in the population of England and Wales in the year to the end of June, adding to the need for more housing and increasing demand for public services.
The immediate focus, however, was on the record net migration figure. A breakdown, covering the 12 months to the end of June, shows that it was the result of an inflow of 1.2 million people balanced against a much smaller outflow of 508,000 people.
Most of those arriving were from outside the European Union, with 968,000 migrants moving to Britain from countries in Asia, Africa and elsewhere, with the largest number coming from India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and Ukraine. Immigration from EU countries was much lower, at 129,000, and only fractionally up on the previous year’s tally. Britons returning from a life abroad made up the rest of the inflow.
The figures show that a third of migrants from outside Europe came for work, with a big increase in arrivals taking jobs in health and social care. There were also large numbers of international students with 39 per cent of those coming from outside Europe doing so to study.
The statisticians say that the large increase in net migration, which the Conservative government once wanted to cut to below 100,000, follows the introduction of a new immigration system introduced at the start of 2021. It aimed to replace the free movement of EU citizens into Britain with a “points-based” system that made it easier for those outside Europe to move to the UK.
With the intention of most migrants coming to the UK of being based in London, the Capital’s population has risen to almost nine million despite growing more slowly than any other region of England and Wales, latest official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics said that 8,886,180 people were living in the capital in the middle of last year. That represented a 0.7 per cent increase on the equivalent total the year before when the number of people had dropped by a similar proportion because of the covid crisis.
But they said the London rise was the smallest regional increase across England and Wales – which saw a combined population growth of 578,000 – because of the large numbers of existing residents moving in other parts of the country almost outweighed the numbers of migrants arriving from overseas to the capital.
(The writer is our foreign correspondent based in the UK) andyjalil@aol.com
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