NON-EU net migration into UK hits 14-year high
NET migration into the UK from outside the EU has hit a 14-year high – as increasing numbers of European migrants quit the UK in advance of Brexit, official figures revealed yesterday.
Some 248,000 more non-eu citizens arrived than left in the year ending in June, their highest net migration since 2004 and up by more than 40 per cent in a year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Net EU migration totalled 74,000, but this was the lowest level from the EU since 2012 as the number of European migrants quitting the UK in a socalled Brexodus increased by 18 per cent year-on-year to 145,000.
It meant Britain’s migrant population rose by 273,000 in the year to June, with 49,000 Britons emigrating.
The ONS data cast doubt on the Government’s ability to meet the Tory manifesto target of reducing immigration to tens of thousands. The rise in non-eu immigrants comes despite visa restrictions. It is understood the longawaited White Paper setting out its post-brexit plans to curb immigration and end free movement from the EU has been delayed until after next month’s vote on the Brexit deal.
Christian Dustmann, the director of UCL’S Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, said: “The UK has become less attractive for EU migrants due to the exchange rate coming down, the insecurity of Brexit and economic developments in Europe.
“Germany has its highest employment ever and Poland is doing very well economically. Many Poles in particular are going either back to Poland or to Germany – to where the jobs are and the pay is highest.”
For a second quarter running, the figures showed more citizens of the EU-8 eastern European countries including Poland and the Czech Republic departed the UK than immigrated, with a net 14,000 leaving. The ONS said: “This has been driven by a decrease in EU-8 immigration and an emigration rise over the last two years.”
Nationals of 14 longer-term EU member states including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, continue to add to the UK population with net migration of 47,000.
The net non-eu migration of 248,000 was 80 per cent up on the low of 138,000 in mid-2013, which the ONS attributed to immigration for work and study, with Asians accounting for almost two thirds of the figure. The biggest inflows were from India and China, totalling more than 100,000.
There was a 7 per cent rise in work visas granted to non-eu citizens with a 15 per cent rise in those for skilled workers particularly for Indians.
Visa applications for skilled workers in health and social care were up 45 per cent in the year ending September 2018, linked to the lifting of the cap on migrant doctors and nurses.
Lord Green, Migration Watch UK chairman, said the levels of non-eu migration levels were astonishing: “It is the result of the Government’s failure to take effective action to reduce it.”
Matthew Fell, chief policy director at the CBI, said: “These statistics highlight the continuing trend of falling net EU migration amid growing shortages across all skills levels in the UK.”
Caroline Nokes, the immigration minister, said the Government was committed to “controlled and sustainable” migration and welcomed the fall in overall net migration from a peak of 370,000 in 2016. Separate Home Office figures show the number of applications for British citizenship from EU nationals increased by 32 per cent to 43,545 in the year to September. Romanian is the second most common nonbritish nationality behind Polish, after a 21 per cent jump to 433,000 of its citizens living in the UK.
♦ Last night it was reported that the Government is set to relax its immigration rules to let more foreign doctors come to Britain to help tackle shortages of medics. The Guardian reported that ministers have agreed to significantly expand the 1,500 doctors a year allowed to work in Britain under the medical training initiative.