Immigration: Expert discusses points-based system in UK

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EU nationals leaving the UK account for a huge decrease in net migration in Britain in 2021, new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data has revealed, showing people leaving in droves in the aftermath of Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. Data shows that 12,000 more European citizens from bloc countries left the UK last year than the number of those who arrived in the year to June 2021. This was compared to a net increase of 24,000 in the previous year range, which included six months of free movement during the Brexit transition period, and nine months before COVID-19 travel restrictions came into play in March 2020.

While the data shows a massive EU exodus, the ONS was keen to reiterate that the pandemic meant it had been forced to change its methods of data collection, meaning the figures could be slightly warped compared to pre-pandemic data sets.

Jay Lindop, director of its Centre for International Migration, said: “The 12 months to June 2021 was a period when migration behaviour was impacted by the restrictions imposed to manage the coronavirus pandemic as well as ongoing changes in migration policy following Brexit.

“Bringing together the best sources of data we have available, our latest estimates of net migration suggest that around 239,000 more people came to the UK than left, driven by non-EU immigration.

“Due to the data collection challenges posed by the pandemic, we’ve used new, experimental, methods to produce today’s numbers and these will be finessed over the coming months as more data becomes available, including census numbers.

“While the figures give a snapshot of migration during the pandemic, they should not be compared with historic trends and are subject to change.”

Despite this, previous data, collected differently, also showed a fall in the number of EU nationals in the UK — in the second quarter of 2019 and 2020, for example.

However, before that, the last time the figure was negative was in 1991 when the EU was a fraction of its present size.

Many more people and EU nationals were encouraged to work in Britain before Brexit when a strong demand in the labour market coupled with an increase in wages made for an attractive environment.

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But wages have since stagnated, and over the past two years, the number of EU nationals working in the UK has fallen by 211,000.

This contrasts with the number of non-EU nationals working in the UK rising by 182,000.

Employers now face more difficulties when hiring workers from abroad due to new visa requirements, meaning filling empty roles with cheap labour has become harder.

Michael Saunders, a Bank of England policymaker, told the Daily Mail that Brexit could be “limiting the extent to which domestic capacity strains and specific skill shortages can be eased through imports and inward migration”.

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Elsewhere in the data, which was provided by the Home Office, it was revealed that more than one million foreign nationals have been allowed to live in the UK, the highest figure in modern history.

It has led many Conservative MPs to accuse the Government of failing to deliver its Brexit promises.

The data showed that the number of visas handed out — to workers, students, family relatives and other foreign nationals — had increased by 35 percent to 994,951 in the year to March, up from a pre-pandemic high of 739,936.

With the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and Afghanistan in mind, a further 15,451 people were granted asylum as the number applying for refuge in Britain shot up by almost 45 percent to 65,008.

This figure is the highest since modern records began in 2005, and may be the largest number since World War 2.

According to the Daily Telegraph, more than 24 Tory MPs have now written to the Home Secretary Priti Patel to ask her why the Government has not delivered on its Brexit promise of taking control of the country’s borders.

In a letter, they said: “Of course, there are exceptional circumstances regarding Ukraine and Hong Kong.

“But the reality of such a drastic increase undeniably undermines our promise to reduce immigration numbers.

“As you have grasped, mass immigration only pays lip service to the concept of ‘control’.

“True control balances any need for high-skilled immigration with building a sustainable domestic workforce and the inevitable consequences of mass migration on societal cohesion, our housing and job markets, wage suppression and pressure on public services.”

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