Executive Summary
Britain’s work-visa system has been redesigned repeatedly over the past twenty-five years, each time in the name of restoring control. The data tells the opposite story. Work-related migration has grown in scale, scope and permanence, and has become one of the principal drivers of long-term population growth.
Between 2019–20 and 2023, annual work-visa grants rose from roughly 120,000 to over 600,000, the highest figures in modern British history, before easing to around 400,000 in 2024. This was not a Covid anomaly but the product of policy design: lower skill and salary thresholds, expanded sponsorship powers, and the rapid scaling of the Health and Care Worker visa, which alone has issued nearly 710,000 grants since 2020.
The character of the system changed with it. In 2023, dependants overtook main applicants for the first time, producing a ratio of 1.16 family members per worker and turning a labour route into a family-settlement channel. Source countries have narrowed sharply toward India, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines.
Because most arrivals qualify to settle after five years, the cohorts admitted since 2020 are projected to generate roughly 384,000 grants of Indefinite Leave to Remain between 2025 and 2029. This report sets out how that happened, and what must change, beginning with firm annual caps on the core work routes.
Read the full report: From Control to Dependency: A Review of the Work Visa System
