Net migration: What’s happening in the UK?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
UK net migration hit a record 745,000 in 2022 according to recently revised figures from the Office for National Statistics.
That means the numbers coming to live in the UK were almost three quarters of a million more than those leaving.
Reducing the numbers of people entering the country has long been a government priority with famous promises to reduce it to “tens of thousands”. In a post-Brexit era it had been assumed that the figures would naturally decline, but that hasn’t been the case.
David Aaronovitch invites you into his briefing room to discover what these numbers mean for the UK.
He’s joined by: Jay Lindop, Director, Office for National Statistics, Centre for International Migration Heather Rolfe, Director of Research and Relationships at the think tank British Future. Madeline Sumption, Director of Migration Observatory, University of Oxford
Production: Sally Abrahams, Kirsteen Knight, Alex Lewis Production Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson + Sophie Hill Sound: Neil Churchill Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.9 | Since the UK's net inward migration figures for 2022, were revised upwards last week to a record 745,000, |
| 0:17.5 | and with the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman accusing the Prime Minister of inaction, |
| 0:23.3 | many column inches and broadcast minutes have been devoted to pronouncing on or agonising about |
| 0:29.4 | the issue. Why is it that stated objectives for immigration over recent times have deviated |
| 0:36.1 | so dramatically from actual outcomes. Or, to put it |
| 0:39.8 | boldly, why have so many more people come to Britain than the government said it wanted? |
| 0:45.6 | To understand that, you have to stop, take a breath and look at the facts and causes of this |
| 0:51.9 | unprecedented movement. |
| 0:56.7 | So what is happening with migration? |
| 1:00.0 | Who's coming, who didn't used to, and why? |
| 1:03.1 | And are things likely to continue like this? |
| 1:06.0 | Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out. First of all, let's start with the numbers, exactly how many and who and how measured. |
| 1:18.1 | Jay Lindop is the director of the Centre for International Migration at the Office for National Statistics. |
| 1:24.2 | Jay Lindop, how are these figures actually calculated? |
| 1:28.3 | So we use different data sources for different group of migrants, namely non-EU, EU and British. |
| 1:34.2 | So non-EU migration refers to estimates of migration for people who don't hold a British or EU nationality. |
| 1:41.3 | And for those, we use home office borders and immigration data. They combine visa |
| 1:45.8 | and travel information to link an individual's travel movements into and out of the country. |
| 1:51.3 | So if they stay for 12 months or more, they're classified as a long-term immigrant. And we do the same, |
| 1:56.2 | but for those that have previously been immigrants, if we see them leave the country for 12 months or more they're an |
| 2:02.0 | immigrant we can't currently use the same methods for EU migration because some EU migrants have got |
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