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.