[Code Rood]

Non-EU migration to the UK hits its highest since 1975 when records began, official figures show

The number of non-EU migrants coming to the UK has surged after the Government lifted the cap on overseas students

The number of non-EU migrants coming to the UK is at its highest since records began nearly 50 years ago, official figures show.

Immigration last year from non EU countries rose to 404,000, the highest since 1975 when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) started collecting data on the citizenship of migrants.

Net migration from outside the EU - the balance between the number of people entering and leaving the country - was also at its highest level since 1975 - at 282,000, having gradually risen since 2013.

It means the number of non EU migrants coming to the UK to study or work has surpassed the previous peak of 265,000 in 2004, during the Tony Blair years when immigration was supercharged by the opening of the borders to workers from Eastern Europe.

By contrast, net migration by EU citizens into the UK fell to 49,000 in the year ending December 2019, its lowest for more than a decade and down from a peak of 200,000 in the years before the EU referendum in 2016, according to yesterday’s ONS data.

The non-EU increase has been fuelled largely by a surge in overseas students from China and India after the Government scrapped the cap on universities’ student numbers in 2015/16 as tuition fees were raised to £9,250 a year for UK undergraduates.

Chinese students account for almost a third of the non-EU immigrants at nearly 120,000, up 20 per cent in a year, followed by Indian students whose numbers nearly doubled to 37,450 last year.

Jay Lindop, director of the Centre for International Migration at the ONS, said: "Overall migration levels have remained broadly stable in recent years, but new patterns have emerged for EU and non-EU migrants since 2016.

"For the year ending December 2019, non-EU migration was at the highest level we have seen, driven by a rise in students from China and India, while the number of people arriving from EU countries for work has steadily fallen.”

The ONS data showed net migration was at 270,000, the highest level for a calendar year since 2015, supplying a strong labour and international student market.

Britain’s immigration is, however, facing transformation from the fall-out from the coronavirus pandemic and Boris Johnson’s ending of EU free movement and introduction of a points-based system for potential entrants.

Oxford University’s Migration Observatory said the new system - putting EU and non-EU migrants on the same footing - would make entry easier for skilled non-EU entrants.

This is due to the lowering of the salary threshold to £25,600, the removal of the cap on them and the removal of the restriction to graduate-level jobs.

“It means numbers of non-EU migrants could rise further although obviously the Covid-19 situation is likely to affect that at least in the short term,” said Rob McNeil, the observatory’s deputy director.

He said the coronavirus pandemic would have far-reaching consequences for migration as well as immediate impacts due to workers' inability to travel to take up work and employers’ difficulty bringing seasonal workers to British fields.

“Even once we emerge from the immediate health crisis, economic and social disruption in the migration system is likely to continue. Will UK employers still want to recruit workers from overseas?” said Mr McNeil.

“Will international students still be applying for and taking up places at British universities a time of unprecedented disruption and uncertainty? Migration flows to and from the UK may effectively have to start from scratch once the crisis is over.”

Kevin Foster, the Immigration Minister, said: "The Immigration Bill gives the UK full control of our immigration system for the first time in decades and the power to determine who comes to this country.

"We are continuing to develop our new points-based system, which will attract the people we need to drive our economy forward and lay the foundation for a high wage, high skill, high productivity economy.

“These figures show we are continuing to attract the brightest and best from across the globe. There are now more international students at our Universities, plus overseas doctors and nurses playing a key role on the frontline of our NHS.”

Immigration to the end of 2019 by region:

South Asia (India, Sri Lanka etc): 120,000

East Asia (China, Japan etc): 96,000

Middle East and Central Asia: 37,000

Sub Saharan Africa: 36,000

South East Asia (Vietnam, Philippines): 30,000

North America: 27,000

Oceania: 18,000

Central and South America: 12,000

North Africa: 8,000

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... -official/

[Political Interest]

Boris Johnson is pro-immigration. Immigration from outside the EU was always part of the Brexiteer programme. They want a cosmopolitan Britain so as to continue the empire.

The British elite pride themselves on having an open immigration policy. They believe that their country is a global nation.

[Code Rood]

Boris Johnson is pro-immigration. Immigration from outside the EU was always part of the Brexiteer programme. They want a cosmopolitan Britain so as to continue the empire.

The British elite pride themselves on having an open immigration policy. They believe that their country is a global nation.

There's simply no way out of this, is there? No matter how you slice it, you're going to get more immigration. You have no say in it whatsoever.

[Patrickov]

There's simply no way out of this, is there? No matter how you slice it, you're going to get more immigration. You have no say in it whatsoever.

The real problem is that their system should have applied to a lot of places in the world like it used to be 100 years ago, but for various reasons and circumstances people from other places have to resort to going to Britain instead of having the British coming over.

[Code Rood]

but for various reasons and circumstances people from other places have to resort to going to Britain instead

You can block people from coming to Britian or other Western countries. It's not hard. The point is that immigration can always be halted, but the elite simply doesn't want to do it. Why? Because it's clear that they have an agenda. I've talked about it before, it's about making everything ''equal'' on a world stage.

[Patrickov]

I've talked about it before, it's about making everything ''equal'' on a world stage.

In some sense I agree with this agenda, because I find myself under a worse alternative, if not the worst.

[Code Rood]

In some sense I agree with this agenda, because I find myself under a worse alternative, if not the worst.

There's no ''shining city upon a hill'' that you can speak of and/or be inspired by once everything has been made ''equal''.

[Pants-of-dog]

What a bizarre thread.

So the elites are supposedly manipulating immigration in order to create a world where inequality disappears (does this mean they give up their own wealth and power?) for no apparent reason.

And the only, or main, drawback is that people will no longer be able to claim that their home is better than the other guys’ place.

Um, okay?

[Beren]

Boris Johnson is pro-immigration. Immigration from outside the EU was always part of the Brexiteer programme. They want a cosmopolitan Britain so as to continue the empire.

The British elite pride themselves on having an open immigration policy. They believe that their country is a global nation.

BJ promised a global Britain anyway, didn't he? If the Brits mean to be global rather than European, so be it.

[ThirdTerm]

The non-EU increase has been fuelled largely by a surge in overseas students from China and India after the Government scrapped the cap on universities’ student numbers in 2015/16 as tuition fees were raised to £9,250 a year for UK undergraduates.

Chinese students account for almost a third of the non-EU immigrants at nearly 120,000, up 20 per cent in a year, followed by Indian students whose numbers nearly doubled to 37,450 last year.

The majority of non-EU immigrants are overseas students. Questions were raised about the methodology to include students in UK immigration figures, if they are not allowed stay after graduation. Overseas students are not even permitted to work in Britain and they need to self-fund their studies without taking the jobs from native workers. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, top universities are losing at least half their international students, leading to cuts in vital scientific projects. Britain is welcoming so many international students to fund its universities by overcharging their tuition fees as international undergraduate tuition fees are up to £38,000 or US$53,700 per year.

Can students be removed from the net migration target?
As the Government aims to reduce the overall level of net migration, international student migrants are included in the net migration target by default.

But there is a difference between removing international students from estimates of net migration and removing international students from the net migration target. The Government may aim to reduce any particular type of migration, or none at all.

However, there are technical difficulties in subtracting international student migration from the current migration estimates, which relate to how migration is measured.

In the UK, estimates of long-term international migration are based on the International Passenger Survey (IPS), which is a survey of people travelling through UK air, sea and rail ports.

Estimates of international student immigrants are based on survey respondents who are migrants and who say their main reason for migrating to the UK is to study. Estimates of emigrants who were international students in the UK are based on former immigrants who are leaving the UK and who say their original reason for immigration was to study.

Note that these figures refer to the migration of people who come to the UK to study: they do not include people migrating from the UK to study abroad if those people have never migrated before, or if they originally migrated to the UK for another reason.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/ho ... estimates/

[Political Interest]

There's simply no way out of this, is there? No matter how you slice it, you're going to get more immigration. You have no say in it whatsoever.

It's a liberal market economy now based almost exclusively on the tertiary sector. Immigration is going to happen, especially with an aging population.

There is almost no political will among any of the mainstream parties to stop this. There are platitudes made about it at election time but this is merely rhetorical and designed to pick up votes from people who have concerns about this issue. That the UK is an immigration country is such a fundamental tenet of the British political consensus that almost no politician will make any serious attempts to restrict it.

BJ promised a global Britain anyway, didn't he? If the Brits mean to be global rather than European, so be it.

Although a significant number of Brexit supporters were and are xenophobic the essential core of the centre right Brexit programme was neo-liberal and global. Centre right Brexiteers wanted to leave the EU not so much because of immigration but because of wanting to restore Britain''s greatness and her sea based trading empire. A lot of the racist Brexiteers are racist towards migrants from continental Europe.

Yes, they want to be global even if they don't realise it. It is a paradox because they voted to leave the EU on the basis of taking back control and restoring sovereignty while wanting to pursue globalism of another type, namely Anglosphere based neo-imperial globalism.

These sorts of people live in a dream world where they think the British Empire and the British Indian Raj were some type of romantic adventure where the colonised prospered under London's benevolent rule, perpetually thankful and longing to make alliances with the old British friends. They clearly don't see that Indians might have a slightly different reading of this history , but then such ethnocentrism is so very typical of the British political class. China has also not forgotten the history of colonial mistreatment during the 19th century but London has been making overtures to Beijing since at least 2015.

[Beren]

they voted to leave the EU on the basis of taking back control and restoring sovereignty while wanting to pursue globalism of another type, namely Anglosphere based neo-imperial globalism.

In my opinion they neither did really mind the consequences of Brexit, although they may have had their illusions, expectations, pipe dreams, or concepts of it, nor did they care about BJ's real intentions or agenda, which may actually be more multicultural and globalist than the EU. However, global Britain could easily turn into global arse-kissing, I wonder whether they'll like it if it happens so.

[Unthinking Majority]

In 30 years the baby boomers will all be dead. The future of most western countries is Asian. People of South Asian and Chinese origin will dominate virtually every western country. I've recently lived in a major metropolitan city, a third of the city was a large suburban ghetto dominated by south asian immigrants, and on the opposite end of the city another third was a suburban ghetto dominated by Chinese immigrants.

[Political Interest]

In my opinion they neither did really mind the consequences of Brexit, although they may have had their illusions, expectations, pipe dreams, or concepts of it, nor did they care about BJ's real intentions or agenda, which may actually be more multicultural and globalist than the EU. However, global Britain could easily turn into global arse-kissing, I wonder whether they'll like it if it happens so.

They jump onboard with whichever trend is popular at the present point in time. They were not bothered by the consequences and did not understand them. Neither the leave campaign or the remain campaign provided much useful information to the people.

It is quite possible that the same people who voted for Brexit will be complaining about the consequences in ten to fifteen years time.

In 30 years the baby boomers will all be dead. The future of most western countries is Asian. People of South Asian and Chinese origin will dominate virtually every western country. I've recently lived in a major metropolitan city, a third of the city was a large suburban ghetto dominated by south asian immigrants, and on the opposite end of the city another third was a suburban ghetto dominated by Chinese immigrants.

It would appear that most Western citizens support migration.

[Beren]

It is quite possible that the same people who voted for Brexit will be complaining about the consequences in ten to fifteen years time.

You're being too generous with that time frame, I guess.

[Code Rood]

It would appear that most Western citizens support migration.

I don't think so. That's what the media wants you to believe. Just talk to some normal people and you'll quickly see that no one is really rooting for this type of stuff.

You may have to read between the lines when it comes to some people because we've been bombarded with guilt and political correctness so much, but it's plain to see how they really feel. They're just afraid to express it clearly.

People simply have no real choice in this current political climate. Political parties all think the same (more or less) on core issues like immigration.

[Donna]

There's simply no way out of this, is there? No matter how you slice it, you're going to get more immigration. You have no say in it whatsoever.

Which has always been the case with population movements through out history, they occur whether you like it or not and they occur whether or not host societies make life miserable or difficult for migrants.

[Code Rood]

(does this mean they give up their own wealth and power?)

No.

''Equality'' is not what you think it means.

[Donna]

No.

''Equality'' is not what you think it means.

His post went completely over your head.

[Code Rood]

Immigration is going to happen, especially with an aging population.

My solution to the aging population is to encourage people to have more babies and reward the mothers for it. I always get called racist or sexist when I say this, but in a normal world this would be applauded.