Blogs
We publish blogs that draw on data and research, and through them we inform debate, spark discussion, and explore the wider implications of current developments.
Analysis, Commentary and Research Updates
Explore our latest publications on immigration and asylum policies. Stay informed with well-researched insights.
Don’t Be Fooled – This Government Is Not In Control Of Illegal Immigration
The Home Office today (9th September) issued a press release titled, ‘For the first time, small boat migrants arriving in the UK face being detained and returned to France’. Promising title – but is it…
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Cutting Student Visas: Bringing Migration Under Control
The numbers speak for themselves. In 2024, student visas accounted for 45% of all UK entry visas issued – the single largest route for legal migration. This surge is no accident. In 2019, ministers set…
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Migration Is Changing Your Area – Just Look At These Numbers.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its official estimates for the population of England and Wales yesterday, and the results make for dire reading. Already the headlines are coming in thick and fast: “Migration fuels population…
Learn MoreA Shocking Year, Strewn With Failure. Pull Your Socks up or go!
It’s been exactly one year since Labour won the 2024 General Election. Given that “immigration and asylum” was the second-most important issue for voters at the time – and by far the most important issue for Conservative…
Learn MoreWar In Iran Will Only Make Britain’s Migration Crisis Worse
The regional fallouts of the conflict engulfing Iran are yet to reveal themselves, but one catastrophic consequence is definitely not in doubt: Britain’s migration crisis will further deepen. Iran is already the nation from which…
Learn MoreIs The Prime Minister’s Plan Working?
Can the government stop the boats? Speaking in Dover today, the Prime Minister gave an update on his pledge to stop small boats crossing the English Channel. Illegal crossings, he said, are down 20 per…
Learn MoreA Passage From India – Explaining The Unexpected Rise Of Indians Crossing The Channel
This week the government disclosed that in 2023 Indians have been the second largest group of people illegally crossing the English Channel in small boats, making up 18 per cent of all crossings. Although the increase…
Learn MoreFrom Baghdad To Bournemouth – Granting Refuge To Terrorists
It emerged in the Daily Mail recently that among those who illegally entered the UK in a dinghy last year were 19 suspected terrorists, several of whom are thought to have been members of the…
Learn MoreDoes Britain Think Immigration Is Too High?
Polling is central to modern politics. For governments, it is a means of testing public reaction to policies. More and more nowadays it is done with focus groups to test the popularity or otherwise of…
Learn MoreMW275 : Recent Supreme Court Cases | Migration Watch UK
1 In its judgment in the case of RT (Zimbabwe) and others v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [1] UKSC 38 delivered on 25 July 2012 the Supreme Court gave an important ruling in relation to asylum appeals. The four parties from Zimbabwe were asylum seekers claiming that if they were
House Of Commons Debate On No To 70 Million Petition
Last year Migration Watch UK, launched a petition on the government e-Petition website calling on the government to take all necessary steps to get immigration down to a level that will stabilise our population as close to the current level as possible and, certainly, well below 70 million – the
Supreme Court Pronounces On The Immigration Rules
In Briefing Paper No 8.43, issued in July 2010, I commented on the case of Pankina v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ.719, decided by the Court of Appeal. The principle enunciated in that case is that changes in the law, in particular to detailed provisions in the Immigration
Students; Genuine Or Bogus – A Response To The Nus
The NUS has made some criticisms of our recent paper which do not stand up to scrutiny. Their first point was that the countries listed in the pilot do not represent the wider student body. Quite so. That is why our calculation was explicitly confined to those countries included in
Briefing Note: Attempts To Fiddle The Immigration Figures Are Bound To Fail
Removing students from the net migration statistics would be wrong in principle and impossible in practice. It is wrong in principle to remove over half of the recorded inflow. There is no difference between a worker and student if they are both here for several years, as the Minister for
60,000 Bogus Students Could Have Entered the UK Last Year – Government “have bottled out on bogus students | Migration Watch UK
As many as 60,000 bogus students could have entered the UK in 2011 alone. This is the conclusion of a study by Migration Watch, based on the findings of a Home Office pilot scheme which were published last week. Under the pilot scheme applicants for student visas were interviewed to determine