Annual net migration to the UK reached a record high of 606,000 last year, according to official estimates, adding further pressure to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has promised to cut the number.
The rise was driven by non-European Union nationals, including refugees under the UK government’s Ukrainian visa schemes and people migrating for work and education, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday.
“The numbers are too high, it’s as simple as that,” Sunak told broadcaster ITV after releasing the data.
He pointed to reforms announced earlier this week that would remove the right for some international students to bring family members into the country.
Robert Jenrick, the British immigration minister, said after the release of the new figures that the country’s net migration is expected to fall to pre-pandemic levels in the medium term.
Jenrick said a package to limit the migration of foreign students’ dependents would “have a tangible impact on net migration”.
“Along with the easing of temporary factors, such as our exceptional humanitarian offerings, we expect net migration to fall to pre-pandemic levels in the medium term,” Jenrick told politicians on Thursday.
High levels of legal migration have long dominated Britain’s political discourse and the topic was a key driver for the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.
For more than 10 years successive Conservative-led governments have pledged to reduce migration – once with a net figure of less than 100,000.
But ONS data released on Thursday showed a net 606,000 people came to Britain in the year ending December 2022.
“The main drivers of the increase were people coming to the UK from non-EU countries for work, study and humanitarian purposes, including those coming from Ukraine and Hong Kong,” said Jay Lindop, director of the Center for International Migration at the US.
Lindop said there was evidence that immigration had slowed in recent months.
Previous data for the year ending June 2022 had shown a net figure of 504,000, and this was revised upwards to 606,000 in the latest release.
More control
The leaders of the Brexit referendum campaign argued that leaving the EU would give Britain more control over its borders, and many who voted in favor cited high migration and the pressure they felt placed on public services as factors in their decision .
But in recent years, Britain has opened visa schemes for people in Ukraine and the former colony of Hong Kong, while companies in sectors such as engineering, construction and catering have called on the government to allow them to hire international staff to overcome shortages. to absorb labour.
The data showed that total immigration in 2022 was about 1.16 million, offset by an emigration of 557,000.
The ONS said 925,000 of those arriving in 2022 were non-EU nationals, 151,000 were from the EU and 88,000 were British citizens.
According to estimates, by 2022 under the special visa arrangements there were 114,000 long-term arrivals from Ukraine and 52,000 from Hong Kong.
Net migration to Britain in 2015, the year before the Brexit referendum, was 329,000.
Sunak has also pledged to clamp down on illegal migration after tens of thousands of people have arrived across the English Channel from continental Europe on small boats in recent years.