Press Story

There is little prospect of the Government's net migration target being reached in the near future, according to the think tank IPPR. The think tank says that the Government should stop "focusing its energy on an unrealistic goal and so continuing to aggravate public concerns" and instead “address the impacts of high levels of immigration in communities feeling pressures".

Figures released today by the Office for National Statistics reveal that net migration to the UK (the difference between immigration and emigration) is an estimated 330,000, more than three times the Government’s target and higher than the previous peak of 320,000 in the year ending June 2005.

Marley Morris, Researcher at IPPR, said:

“The Government is far off its net migration target and there is now little prospect of it being reached in the near future. Rather than focusing its energy on an unrealistic goal and so continuing to aggravate public concerns, the Government should address the impacts of high levels of immigration in communities feeling pressures.

At the same time, despite the focus on Calais, the high levels of net migration have little to do with Europe’s current migrant crisis. Asylum is a small part of the migration figures – in 2013 only around 5% of incoming migrants were asylum seekers and today's figures show under 26,000 asylum applications in the year ending June 2015, which is low compared to the peak in 2002.

Dealing with this crisis – by bringing in the UNHCR to register migrants in Calais and then striking a deal with the French government to offer a controlled, orderly process for refugees seeking protection to apply in France or the UK, alongside heightened security measures – would be both pragmatic and humane, and would have little impact on the aggregate flow of migrants coming to the UK.”