Migration from EU halves in 12 months

NET MIGRATION from outside the EU has hit the highest level in nearly 15 years, as a post-Brexit plunge in arrivals from the bloc continued, new figures reveal.

Overall, the balance between the numbers arriving in and leaving the UK remained above 250,000 – nearly three times the Government’s target level of below 100,000.

Office for National Statistics data showed that 261,000 more non-EU citizens came to the country than left in the year ending September 2018. This was the highest estimate since 2004.

EU net migration continued to add to the UK’s population but it almost halved year-on-year to 57,000 – a level last seen in 2009.

Overall, around 283,000 more people moved to the UK with an intention to stay 12 months or more than left. Jay Lindop, deputy director of the ONS Centre for International Migration, said: “Different patterns for EU and non-EU migration have emerged since mid-2016, when the EU referendum vote took place.”

The figures showed that, in the year to September, 627,000 people moved to the UK, while 345,000 emigrated.

The ONS analysis suggests net migration, immigration and emigration figures have remained broadly stable since the end of 2016. Net migration from eight eastern European states that joined the EU in 2004 has been negative in the last three quarterly statistical bulletins.

In the last period, 15,000 more nationals from the so-called EU8 states – Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – departed than arrived.