• UK Rishi Sunak's plan to crack down on illegal immigration
  • Migration The debate that has paralyzed the EU for eight years

Take back control. Almost seven years after Britons voted to leave the European Union, seduced by the promise to "take back control of our own borders", the slogan of the pro-Brexit campaign has achieved precisely the opposite of what it intended: that net immigration to the United Kingdom reaches historic highs.

The net balance of immigrants who arrived in the United Kingdom last year, according to figures provided on Thursday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), was 606,000 people, a figure that represents a record increase of 20% compared to the 504,000 registered the previous year.

In 2022, the total number of immigrants arriving in the country was around 1.2 million, while emigration was estimated at 557,000, according to the agency. This increase has been driven by the entry into the UK of third-country nationals to study, work or flee conflict or oppression. According to ONS data, among the non-EU students there were 361,000 students and their dependent families, 235,000 people for work reasons, 172,000 for humanitarian reasons - from countries such as Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan - and 76,000 asylum seekers.

In the weeks leading up to the release of these figures, Conservative ministers told the media that the net balance could be between 700,000 and one million people. While the final total of immigrants was not as high, the figure is more than double that recorded in 2019, when the Tories promised once again to "reduce the figure to a maximum of one hundred thousand people", echoing Theresa May's manifesto of 2017.

The publication of this data has put Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his interior minister, Suella Braverman, against the ropes, who argued that leaving the community bloc would allow them to take control of the borders of the United Kingdom. The average net immigration before Brexit was between 200,000 and 250,000 a year. Last year, Braverman declared his aim was to reduce the figure to "tens of thousands" and Sunak has previously stuck to Boris Johnson's pledge to reduce it below 245,000. This week, however, it has refused to set a concrete target.

Since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, successive governments have promised that immigration should not exceed 100,000 people a year. But the truth is that it does not stop rising and the promise of Brexit, which has turned out to be little more than mirage, is now causing an internal crisis in the party.

In a bid to regain control of the situation, the government of Sunak announced on Tuesday a new measure to reduce the number of arrivals of foreigners to its borders. From January 2024, the UK will prohibit foreign students from bringing their dependent family members with them.

"I am pleased to announce a new package of measures to help achieve our goal of reducing net migration, while supporting the Government's priority of growing the economy," Braverman said in a parliamentary statement.

In particular, they will abolish the right of foreign students to bring dependants - unless they pursue research programmes, be it a master's degree or a doctorate - and put an end to the possibility for them to change from a study visa to a work visa before completing their studies.

According to Interior Ministry figures published in February, 2022,135 visas were granted to dependent family members of students in 788, almost nine times more than the 16,047 in 2019. Nigeria was the country with the highest number of dependents of student visa holders in 2022, with 60,923. India ranked second, increasing from 3,135 in 2019 to 38,990 in 2022.

However, some fear that changes in rules on dependent family members will have a "disproportionate impact on women and students in certain countries." Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, has urged the Government, in a statement sent to this newspaper, to "work with the sector to limit and monitor the impact on particular groups of students, and on universities, which are already under severe financial pressure".

Speaking to The Guardian, Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, stressed the negative impact this measure could have on the British education sector: "Although some students may choose to be separated from their family during their studies, many others will ultimately decide not to come to the UK. . Therefore, the country is likely to be somewhat less attractive to graduate students, which will bring less money to the sector."

  • United Kingdom
  • Europe
  • immigration
  • Rishi Sunak
  • Articles Charlotte Davies

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