Fewer migrants coming from EU

... but 244k total’s still more than twice the Tory target

NET migration to this country from Europe has fallen below 100,000 for the first time in five years, according to official statistics.

Some 130,000 EU citizens left the UK in the year to September – the highest number for a decade – but the global net migration figure was 244,000, still two and a-half times higher than the Government’s target of below 100,000.

Net migration – the figure reached after both immigration and emigration are taken into account – from EU countries to the UK amounted to 90,000, and has more than halved since the Brexit referendum vote in June 2016.

The Office for National Statistics said yesterday the overall 244,000 figure was the lowest for three years.

But think-tanks from different sides of the immigration debate agreed that the fall in numbers of incoming EU workers did not amount to a ‘Brexodus’.

Nicola White, ONS head of international migration, said: ‘EU net migration has fallen as fewer EU citizens are arriving, especially those coming to look for work in the UK, and the number leaving has risen. It has now returned to the level seen in 2012.

‘The figures also show that non-EU net migration is now larger than EU net migration, mainly due to the large decrease in EU net migration over the last year. However, migration of both non-EU and EU citizens are still adding to the UK population.

‘Brexit could well be a factor in people’s decision to move to or from the UK, but people’s decision to migrate is complicated and can be influenced by lots of different reasons.’

The ONS said the improving economic outlook in the eurozone was providing more opportunities for European workers who would over recent years have been attracted to the booming numbers of jobs being created in Britain.

Net migration from the EU was 189,000 in the year to June 2016 and has now fallen below its level of the year to March 2013 (95,000). Emigra-

‘This is not a Brexodus’

tion by EU citizens rose to 130,000, the highest since the year to December 2008, at the height of the recession.

Figures for the take-up of new National Insurance numbers – which arrivals in the country need to work legally or claim benefits – told a similar story. NI numbers issued to EU citizens fell in the year to December 2017 by 21 per cent to 497,000. The biggest drop in issues was to Polish citizens, down by 34 per cent to 62,000.

Net migration from outside the EU went up by 40,000 to 205,000, driven by an increase in immigration from Asian countries and a fall in emigration by non-EU citizens.

Alp Mehmet, of the Migration Watch UK think-tank, said: ‘There are still nearly 100,000 more EU citizens arriving than leaving. This is hardly a Brexodus. The fall in overall net migration is welcome but it is still running at nearly a quarter of a million a year – far above the Government’s target. This will mean building a city the size of Birmingham every two or three years.’

Phoebe Griffith, of the Left-leaning IPPR think-tank, said: ‘This is not a Brexodus... but there has been a sharp fall in EU nationals coming to the UK to look for work since the referendum, as well as a rise in EU nationals leaving.

‘We are now starting to feel the effects of this trend on our immigration system and the UK labour market. For the third month in a row, the cap on recruiting skilled migrants from outside the EU has been hit, largely due to pressures to recruit from abroad within the NHS.’