Press Story

Sarah Mulley, Associate Director at IPPR, said:

"Today's statistics show that net migration to the UK was unchanged at about 250,000 in the year to September 2011. The Government has so far made no progress towards meeting its target of reducing net migration to less than 100,000. It has also found that it is very difficult to reduce immigration to the UK without imposing significant costs on the economy. Recent changes to the student visa regime will deprive the UK education sector and wider economy of much needed income, but will have only limited impacts on long-term net migration because the vast majority of foreign students only remain in the UK temporarily. The Government should exclude students from migration figures and count them only if they stay in the UK for the long term.

"Changes to the work-related immigration routes which employers need to recruit skilled workers from outside the EU have had very modest impacts - the weakening economy has had a much more significant effect, as evidenced by the fact that declines in the issuance of work-related visa started in 2007."

Notes to Editors:

Today's ONS figures are at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_264614.pdf

Net migration, immigration and emigration

Underneath the overall net migration figure of 252,000 in the year to September 2011, immigration remains stable (as the ONS makes clear, it has been stable since 2004, at just under 600,000).

As IPPR has pointed out before, contrary to some claims, the variation in net migration since 2004 has been largely due to changes in the level of emigration rather than immigration. In the year to September 2011, overall emigration from the UK was stable at just under 350,000 (significantly down from a peak of well over 400,000 in 2008).

Immigration for work

Overall, immigration to the UK to work looks fairly stable - the total number of National Insurance Numbers allocated to foreign nationals increased by just 1% in the year to December 2011.

More recent visa figures (for the year to March 2012) show a fall in the number of work visas granted to non-EEA nationals (down 8% on the year to March 2011 to 148,498). This decline in work-related immigration by non-EEA nationals started in 2007 and appears to be largely caused by changing economic conditions rather than any change in policy.

Immigration for study

Study remains the most common reason for long term immigration to the UK: numbers were stable at 250,000 in the year to September 2011. But recent Government policy changes are having an impact - more recent visa figures published today show that the number of student visas granted to non-EEA nationals in the year to March 2012 fell by 16%, to 346,164.

In this context it is important to note that "long term immigration" does not mean "permanent": it is defined as anyone coming for more than one year. Over 80% of student migrants return home within a few years, meaning that cuts to international student numbers have only limited effects on long term net migration, while imposing significant costs on the education sector and wider economy.

In a report published last week, IPPR argued that students should be counted in the migration statistics only if they stay in the UK long-term: http://ippr.org/publication/55/8997/international-students-and-net-migration-in-the-uk

Settlement

The number of people granted permanent settlement in the UK continues to fall (down 35% to 148,144 in the year to March 2012). This is in large part a return to the previous trend, after a one-off increase in 2010. That increase in 2010 was due to the acceleration of the "backlog clearance" exercise, in which a number of older asylum cases were granted settlement.

Contacts

Richard Darlington, 07525 481 602, r.darlington@ippr.org

Tim Finch, 07595 920899, t.finch@ippr.org