Non-EU Immigration - Main Points
The below summary was last updated October 2019
- The non-EU born population has increased by just under two million since 2004. It now stands at nearly six million.
- Annual non-EU net migration has more than doubled, from 89,000 in 1997 to 214,000 in 2018.
- Nearly half (49%) of non-EU born residents (or some four million people) say they came to the UK for family-related reasons.
- Indeed, the family stream is the largest non-EU immigration visa route leading to permanent residence.
- The non-EU migration stream includes migrants from a mix of countries who exhibit very different economic characteristics.
- There is a considerable body of research on the fiscal impact of immigration and all analysis suggests that non-EU immigrants in the UK are costing the UK taxpayer many billions every year.
- In 2018, Dame Louise Casey warned the government that the UK was ‘sleepwalking into an increasingly segregated country’. About 60% of the public wish to see a reduction in immigration.
- The public are more concerned to see reductions in levels of non-EU, rather than EU, immigration, according to research by the LSE.
- During the 2017 General Election, the government made a promise to ‘bear down’ on non-EU immigration.
- Yet, in their current form, their post-Brexit immigration proposals carry a serious risk of increasing it.
- Non-EU net migration may have been overcounted by up to 20% in recent years. This results from uncertainties surrounding the accuracy of the International Passenger Survey.
Non-EU Immigration Research
Is immigration a threat to UK security?
1 May, 2024 - Briefing Paper: MW 520
Direct refugee immigration to the UK
17 October, 2022 - Briefing Paper: MW 510
Resettlement of Afghan citizens to the UK
1 October, 2021 - Briefing Paper: MW 498
How many people are expected to take up the new Hong Kong visa?
29 January, 2021 - Briefing Paper: MW 487
Non-EU immigration
23 October, 2019 - Briefing Paper: MW 467
How to deliver a significant reduction in non-EU net migration
31 August, 2018 - Briefing Paper: MW 453
The Outlook for Non-EU Net Migration 2017 - 2021
3 October, 2017 - Briefing Paper: MW 418
Summary of the Tier 5 (Youth Mobility) Scheme
18 April, 2017 - Briefing Paper: MW 407
Library
Over the 24 years that Migration Watch UK has been working in this field we have produced many papers.
View Non-EU Immigration Library