UK net legal immigration last year was like adding a city the size of Nottingham
Latest figures (almost 700,000) continue to show extreme levels of net legal immigration, despite Brexit
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024
Facts4EU.Org analyses the latest data from the ONS and the Home Office
Net legal immigration fell a little last year (2023) but is still at unsustainable levels. With the general election dominating the news the latest data has perhaps not fully registered. Even though the number fell a little compared to the record number in 2022 it is still astronomically high. It is also the case that illegal small boat migrants continue to arrive in record numbers.
Last year the permanent increase from net legal immigration was almost as much as adding the equivalent of an agglomeration the size of Nottingham to the UK population – in just one year.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
Long-term net immigration 2023
- Total net legal immigration : 685,000
- Total illegal migrants in boats : 29,437
- TOTAL : 714,437
[Sources : ONS and UK Home Office, May 2024.]
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2024 - click to enlarge
10.0 million UK residents (16.8%) are now foreign born
In the nation's capital of London in 2021 an astonishing 40.6% (3.6m) were foreign-born
Long-term net legal migration (the number of people immigrating minus the number emigrating) was provisionally estimated to be 685,000 in the year ending (YE) December 2023, compared with the updated estimate of 764,000 for the YE December 2022.
Previous estimates of net immigration were understated, as we predicted
It is important to note that previous estimates from the Office for National Statistics for prior years have had to be increased.
With more complete data on how long people are staying in the UK, the ONS’s previous provisional estimates published in November 2023 have been updated. Long-term net migration for 2022 and 2023 is now estimated to be 19,000 and 68,000 higher than reported, respectively.
Where’s the political will to tackle all of this?
The Conservative manifestos of 2015 and 2017 each carried pledges to reduce net legal immigration to below 100,000 per annum. As can be seen above, those governments did not come remotely close to honouring these pledges.
Opinion polls have consistently shown that the majority of the British public want a massive reduction in legal immigration. Ministers have been unable to deliver on this. Last year the Immigration Minister Robert Renrick resigned in frustration.
Mr Jenrick’s verdict on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was particularly damning
“I think the Prime Minister was completely disinterested in this issue and wouldn’t even discuss it with anybody. He only discussed it with me when I made clear that this was unsustainable, and I would have to leave the Government if we didn’t resolve it within a couple of days.
“We did put that package of measures together, but we have to go much further than that. That is not sufficient.”
- The then Immigration Minister, the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP
Last year more than 1.2m legal immigrants entered the UK
The provisional estimate for total long-term immigration for 2023 (1,218,000) was broadly similar to 2022 (1,257,000), with non-EU arrivals accounting for 85% of the 2023 figure.
Non-EU immigration for work-related reasons increased from 277,000 in 2022 to 423,000 in 2023, replacing study as the main reason for long-term migration. Almost half of those immigrating for work-related reasons came from India or Nigeria, most commonly in the health and social care sector.
The number of non-EU nationals arriving as dependants of those on long-term work visas has overtaken the number of main applicants, increasing from 125,000 to 219,000 for dependant applicants and from 152,000 to 204,000 for main applicants, in 2023.
The position since January 2024
The Government has now finally started to change the rules. The changes to government policy on legal migration rules for family, study and work related visas have come into effect slowly since the start of the year. The Government has been doing this in a phased manner and naturally the effects of these changes do not show up in last year’s figures.
Observations
Those of the globalist, ‘open borders’ fraternity claim that the UK needs mass immigration to staff our burgeoning and ever more-costly NHS. What has surprised us is that they and the media never mention one important factor.
For every new NHS worker entering the country, there are many more immigrants who have come in on family visas and who need its services. In many cases disproportionately so, due to congenital conditions. In other words, the burden on the NHS is increasing despite the number of new foreign workers.
Last month a member of the CIBUK team, (an organisation to which Facts4EU.Org is affiliated), had an emergency and had to go to A&E at a major London hospital. He described the scene as like a third world country. He said that almost all those in the large waiting area were unrecognisable as British and were speaking other languages.
There is no doubt that the Government’s new measures which they have finally started to introduce this year will reduce net legal immigration. However even if the number is halved this is still too much.
The new rules should make a significant difference by the end of this year (2024) but for many people this is far too little and far too late.
We must get reports like this out there
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[ Sources: ONS | UK Home Office ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sun 26 May 2024
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