UK migration figures exceeded 900,000 in 2023, the highest annual total on record and much more than previously thought, according to official figures issued by the UK Office of National Statistics on Thursday.
According to the revised Office for National Statistics figure, migration is put at 906,000 for the period between January and June 2023, This figure far exceeds the previous estimate of 740,000 recorded in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Reasons For Increased UK Migration
The Office of National Statistics attributed the jump to more information on people arriving from Ukraine and on people already in the UK gaining new long-term visas. However, it added that this figure has fallen 20 percent to 728,000 for the 12 months leading to June 2024 owing to the previous Conservative government’s tightened control on international students and care workers and raise in salary thresholds for sponsoring skilled workers.
Conservatives in The Limelight
The recently released UK migration figures have sparked fierce criticism of the Conservatives’ record in government with Labour saying the figures highlighted how “the Tories broke the immigration system”, while also noting it had “started the hard graft” of bringing numbers down.
A spokesperson for prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said the figures showed the previous government had “run Britain as an experiment in open borders”.
Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, said the figures were “horrendous”, adding that voters would not forgive the Conservatives “at any point in the next few years for what they have done”.
Pressure on Home Secretary
The migration figures will also ramp up the pressure on Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who has pledged to cut immigration further as well as keeping the Conservatives’ changes in place. The ONS figures showed that about 1 million of the 1.2 million people who came to live in the UK in the year to June were non-EU nationals. Of these, 845,000 were of working age and 179,000 were children. The top countries of origin were India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and Zimbabwe.
On Thursday, the Home Office also announced new measures that will bar employers from hiring migrants if they repeatedly flout visa rules — including if they treat migrant staff unfairly.
In comments on Wednesday that anticipated the data release, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch acknowledged how far net migration had risen during her party’s 14 years in office, saying the Conservatives had got it “wrong”.
UK Visa Applications Declining
Data for visa applications on Thursday suggested, however, that the recent decline in net migration to the UK is gathering pace. Home Office figures for the year to September showed a 65 percent fall in applications for health and care workers, a drop of 19 percent in students, and of 84 percent in dependants of students.
The decline in net migration in the year to June is mostly due to fewer family members accompanying students, and students who had arrived in earlier years returning home. About 295,000 non-EU nationals came to study, similar to the previous year’s intake of students, but they brought fewer family members with them, reflecting new immigration rules that banned students on one-year masters courses from bringing dependants. About 184,000 non-EU nationals also came on work visas, down from 219,000 in the year to December 2023. The number of family members joining them however increased to 233,000, from 166,000 in the year to June 2023.
However, the ONS said the most recent figures showed signs of a fall, the Home Office quarterly statistics released on Thursday showed an 18 percent decline in the number of migrants arriving through irregular channels like small boats in the year ending September.
Key Sectors to Suffer
Marley Morris, associate director at the think-tank IPPR, said the new government faced “a tough set of choices on immigration” as further cuts to numbers and the proposed ban on care workers bringing family to the UK “could be challenging for recruitment in key sectors such as social care, as well as university finances.