Net migration in the UK has hit a record high of 504,000 over the past year, surpassing pre-Brexit levels.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed net migration rose from 173,000 in the year to June 2021 to 504,000 in the year to June 2022, an increase of 331,000.
The total – based on those entering the UK minus those leaving – is 170,000 more than the previous post-war record of 331,000 in 2015.
The increase stems from a surge in visas for foreign nationals to live, study and work in the UK, which topped one million for the first time in the year to June.
The increase was also boosted by the arrival of Ukrainian and Afghan refugees and Hong Kongers, in addition to a fall in the number of people leaving the UK.
The figures will raise concerns about the government’s election manifesto to reduce net migration, a pledge repeated by Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman, the home secretary, who told the Tory conference her ambition was to reduce it to below 100,000.
The total is significantly higher than the 224,000 forecast for next year by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in the Autumn Statement and the expected sustained decline to 205,000 per year.
Interior ministers are pushing for new curbs
But home ministers are understood to be pressing Number 10 on the need for measures to curb non-economic legal migration to deliver on the Tories’ manifesto pledge.
These could include restrictions on students’ rights to bring dependents, a crackdown on those who do not complete their courses but remain in the UK, and restrictions on foreign students on “uneconomic” low-quality courses. The salary threshold for skilled workers could also increase.
ONS figures showed 1.1 million people came to live in the UK in the year to June 2022, an increase of 435,000 on the previous year. Separate Home Office figures showed the number of people with residence permits rose to 1.4 million in the year to September.
This increase was largely due to non-EU nationals, who made up 704,000 or 66 per cent of the total by June 2022, up 379,000 on the previous year. Immigration to the EU remained stable at around 224,000, or 21 per cent of the total.
The largest share is made up of students
Students made up the largest share at 277,000, almost double the 143,000 who came to the UK in the year to June 2021.
The ONS suggested this could be partly due to students returning to their courses in the UK after studying remotely overseas during the pandemic.
He also said the increase may have been fueled by a new graduate visa route, which encourages more students to come to the UK for the opportunity to work for up to three years after graduation.
Humanitarian and other family visas accounted for the second largest share of immigrants, at 39 percent or 276,000 in the year ending June 2022, triple the 91,000 the previous year. These included 89,000 Ukrainians, 76,000 from Hong Kong and 21,000 Afghans or Britons returning from Afghanistan.
Separate Home Office data also released on Thursday showed the number of asylum applications for the year ending September 2022 was at a two-decade high of 72,027. That’s double the 2019 figure.
Asylum was granted in 77 percent of decided cases, rising to 98 percent for those from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Syria.
The backlog of cases awaiting a first decision has now increased from 122,000 in June 2022 to 143,000 in September.