The new ONS data is breathtaking
Net migration figures are a hammer-blow. Do any of our politicians have the will and courage to fix the problem?
Not much surprises us here at Migration Watch UK, after 20 years of painstaking study of the mess that is our ballooning immigration crisis. But even we took a deep breath when the new ONS figure for net migration in the year ending June 2022 came out. (For a summary of our findings see here and see the ONS bulletin here). Here is a quick summary of what you need to know:
- Net migration for the year to June 2022 is estimated by the ONS to be 504,000. The previous record was a third of a million in 2015/16. Meanwhile, the number of longterm entry visas issued in the most recent twelve month period by the Home Office also stands at a new record of about 1.3 million – this is even higher than the figure in today’s bulletin because it covers the year to the end of September 2022 (see new visa statistics)
- Net migration rose by 331,000 in just the past year (from 173,000 in the year ending June 2021)
- The immigration inflow total for the past year is also an all-time record of just under 1.1 million (87% of whom are non-British citizens)
- EU and British net migration are both in negative figures (-45,000) while non-EU net migration is at an all-time record of 509,000
- The ONS says migration from non-EU countries, specifically students, is driving this rise but ‘there has also been a large increase in the number of people migrating for a range of other reasons. This includes people arriving for humanitarian protections, such as those coming from Ukraine, as well as for family reasons’
- The number of non-UK born people in the UK is now approaching a record 10.4 million – a third of a million more than just last year when the Census was completed
- The visa figures from the Home Office, mentioned above, for the year to September 2022, also showed visa grants in the past year included 140,000 entry grants for work and study dependants
Before the ONS bombshell dropped Sir Keir Starmer told the CBI that Britain must wean itself off cheap labour and invest in workers who are already here (see our comments in the press below). Well, quite, Sir Keir, but calling on the CBI to do this and then saying you are going to keep in place the failed system is hardly going to solve the problem!
The Home Secretary Suella Braverman is under fire for the continued chaos on the Channel (see our tracker for the latest updates). She was right to tell the Home Affairs Committee that the UK has accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees via safe and legal routes in the past few years (more in fact than any other European country).
Blog of the week
How Uncontrolled Immigration Worsens The Cost Of Living Crisis
The cost of living crisis is punishing hard-working British people.
Meanwhile the government is raising taxes (despite crippling inflation), wasting taxpayers’ money and allowing both legal and illegal immigration to continue out of control. See our full blog here.
Migration Watch in the news
MWUK: Comment on today’s ONS immigration figures
‘Net migration of 504,000 is a truly breathtaking figure. It is also unprecedented and Migration Watch UK takes no comfort from it being just as we predicted. The hideously loose post-Brexit immigration system, the ease with which people can make their way to the UK and stay, and the appalling failure to remove those with no right to be here, have all contributed to this astonishing net migration figure.
‘Will the Conservative and Labour leaders now accept that the level of immigration is damagingly high? And will the government tell us how they intend to bring it down?’
Talk TV: We have lost control of our borders
‘If someone is coming from France, and they are fleeing persecution, or indeed have come through any number of countries, safe countries, wealthy countries, that afford people in those circumstances asylum, then should they not have applied there first?’
Sky News: Immigration is at a record high – so why are there still so many job vacancies?
Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “Abandoning key controls on work immigration – including by removing the cap on work permits and scrapping the requirement to advertise job vacancies in the UK first – have all contributed to the number of work visas issued skyrocketing.”
The Epoch Times: UK Net Migration Hits a Record Half a Million
Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said the “unprecedented” figure is “truly breathtaking” and urged the government to set out a plan to bring down the level of net migration.
We were also mentioned by Nigel Farage on GB News this week, in a discussion about the impact of immigration on housing. Skip to 14 mins here to see our research being cited.
Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail also cited our research on housing. You can read his piece here.
‘It is welcome that the Labour leader is at last paying attention to widespread public concern about the sheer scale of continuing immigration.
‘But he has made no commitment to reduce it.
‘Until he does so he will be no more credible than the Tories on this issue which is vital for our future.’
Yorkshire Post: Swing voters want open migration, research suggests
Labour’s suggestion was welcomed by some groups. Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “It is welcome that the Labour leader is at last paying attention to widespread public concern about the sheer scale of continuing immigration.
“But he has made no commitment to reduce it. Until he does so he will be no more credible than the Tories on this issue which is vital for our future.”
GB News: Asylum seekers should NOT be allowed to work
‘All you’re saying there is that anyone who wants to make it across the Channel in a boat will be okay because they will be allowed to work. That is not sensible for goodness sake. It’s a bad idea.’
Talk TV: Migration Watch reacts to Keir Starmer’s speech on immigration
‘What a change, eh? U-turn, or what? He’s absolutely right, we do need to wean ourselves—or employers need to wean themselves—off cheaper foreign labour. And they could be looking more to the people we’ve got available in this country.’
Make your voice heard
Now would be a good time to let your MP know how you feel about the impact of mass immigration. Remember, net migration of over half a million, the population of Liverpool, in just one year. This, of course, is exactly what we said would happen when the new visa system was imposed. With little control, rocketing numbers were always inevitable. It’s what happens when you make it easier for overseas workers and their families from 80% of the world to come here. Write to your MP here.