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WHERE MIGRATION WATCH LEADS, OTHERS FOLLOW
When Migration Watch was founded in 2001, the prevailing orthodoxy in Westminster was that mass immigration was an unalloyed good: economically beneficial, culturally enriching, and even questioning these assumptions marked one as beyond the pale. We set out to change that, armed with rigorous, evidence-based analysis. Over two decades later, positions we once advocated in near-isolation have become the settled consensus of mainstream British politics.
We set the agenda on higher salary thresholds on work visas and tighter restrictions on lower-skilled migration. When the post-Brexit immigration system was being designed, we warned explicitly that lowering the skills threshold from degree-level to A-level equivalent would open the floodgates, and called on the government to maintain the £30,000 salary threshold and degree-level qualification requirement. It did the opposite, and net migration surged to record highs. Both the Conservative government in 2024 and the Labour government in 2025 subsequently raised salary thresholds and restored the degree-level requirement, adopting what we had urged from the start.
On the social care visa route, we cautioned from the outset that allowing overseas recruitment into a low-paid, poorly regulated sector would drive exploitation and unsustainable migration volumes. As we set out in detail, this route had become a scam that needed to end immediately. We were proved right, and in 2025 the Labour government ended the scheme.
We were also ahead of the curve on the European Convention on Human Rights. We have repeatedly made the case for withdrawal, including in detailed analysis of how the Convention has been weaponised to prevent deportations. Today, both the Conservative and Reform parties have adopted withdrawal from the ECHR as formal policy, and even the Labour government’s 2025 White Paper acknowledged that the family migration system had become excessively shaped by court interpretations of Article 8.
None of this work would be possible without our supporters. Migration Watch receives no government funding; we depend entirely on the generosity of individuals who understand that independent, rigorous research is the foundation of sound policy. We are deeply grateful for that support, and we look forward to continuing to do what we have always done: produce tomorrow’s migration policy today.
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every week as soon as it is released.
