Public Attitudes to Migration
In November 2025, Migration Watch UK commissioned JL Partners to conduct a nationally representative poll of 1,520 UK adults on public attitudes toward net migration levels, the perceived impact of migration across eight policy areas, and views on long-term demographic change. The results show settled, cross-party, public majority concern about the scale of recent migration […]
The Future of Student Visas
Executive summary Getting immigration under control must be the first and main priority of any new government. The problem now lies not merely in illegal immigration, which the current government has liked to make a big show of tackling, but the legal routes to entry that have allowed the immigrant population to explode and become […]
Student immigration to the UK
Key points Introduction 1. The UK’s higher education product is a major export and an important component of soft power. It is important to have a viable study visa route into the UK. However, it is also important to keep numbers at reasonable levels and prevent a repetition of the wide-ranging abuse that has occurred […]
Student immigration to the UK
Key points Introduction 1. The UK’s higher education product is a major export and an important component of soft power. It is important to have a viable study visa route into the UK. However, it is also important to keep numbers at reasonable levels and prevent a repetition of the wide-ranging abuse that has occurred […]
Risks of reviving the defective post-study work route
Summary 1. Until this year, non-EU students (who account for seven in ten overseas students in higher education[1]) have been restricted to a job search of up to six months after graduation before switching into a skilled work visa – the grant of which required a job offer, a minimum salary level and a resident […]
MW417 : How many students have been granted settlement in recent years? | Migration Watch UK
Summary 1. A major analysis of migrants’ journeys through the immigration system reveals that in the last seven years (2009-2015) almost 200,000 grants of settlement were made to non-EU migrants who originally arrived through the student route. These findings show that students are not all temporary residents, as is often suggested, but many are in […]
Students have added 200,000 to the permanent population in the last seven years | Migration Watch UK
The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee has called on the government to improve the statistics on the number of students who leave the country and then for them to be removed from net migration ‘for public policy purposes’. This is despite the fact that a report issued today by Migration Watch UK reveals that […]
Migration Watch UK press comment on reports that foreign students may be separated from the net migration totals | Migration Watch UK
April 21, 2017 Commenting, Mr Alp Mehmet, Vice Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “The student route has undoubtedly been a major source of abuse in the past although it has been tightened in recent years. If student numbers are to be shown separately in future it is essential that they be published alongside the […]
MW407 : Summary of the Tier 5 (Youth Mobility) Scheme | Migration Watch UK
1. Tier 5 is for those allowed to work in the UK for a limited period of time to satisfy primarily non-economic objectives. It is split into two routes – Youth Mobility and Temporary Workers. The Youth Mobility visa was introduced in November 2008 to replace the Working Holiday visa and allows participants to live […]
Migration Watch UK press comment on Times report regarding international student migration | Migration Watch UK
Commenting, Lord Green of Deddington, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said: “This seems to be a partial leak of a first analysis of the exit checks which came into force eighteen months ago. At this stage it is quite unclear what the reported figure of 1% refers to. Indeed it is impossible to draw any […]