“None of the headline changes are statistically significant and although immigration and net migration show small decreases, these reductions are in comparison with record level estimates a year ago; overall the trend at present seems broadly flat”, the official research body said.
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Net long-term migration into the United Kingdom over the past year was more than 327,000, remaining at a near record level.
The last migration figures showed 333,000 more people entered the country than left in the year to the end of December.
Thursday’s figures, which do not cover the period before the June 23 referendum, showed migration from European Union member states constituted the majority of migrants to the country. “The influx of Romanians and Bulgarians has also reached a new high, although that’s off-set by falls in non-EU immigration and from other central and eastern European countries”, explained Nicola White, head of migration statistics at the ONS.
Net long-term migration-the number of people coming to the United Kingdom minus those leaving-was estimated at 327,000 in the year ending in March, down 9,000 from a year earlier, a change the ONS said wasn’t statistically significant.
The quarterly figures also show a sharp fall in the number of global students coming to study in Britain, down 28,000 to 164,000 – the lowest level since 2007.
“Work remains the main reason for migration followed by study, which has seen a significant fall in the number of people coming to the United Kingdom for education”.
“Public trust in governments’ competence to manage immigration – including meeting its own targets – is at rock bottom”, Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, said in a statement. “Part of the reason for this is that migrants are more likely to be working-age adults rather than children or older people”.
The main benefits go to labour-intensive employers who often can not get an adequate supply of UK-born labour.
Britain is expected to seek to introduce controls on free movement rules following the referendum outcome, but details of the system have yet to be outlined. “It would be remiss of the MAC not to have actually done a bit of thinking about some of these things”.
He said the scheme would be “pretty straightforward” and could be modelled on a previous work permit system for seasonal agricultural workers. It was time limited and capped.
She has repeated a 2010 pledge made by predecessor David Cameron that the United Kingdom government wants to reduce yearly net migration to below 100,000, a level she has described as “sustainable”.
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May said the target stands and believes it could take another four years to achieve. Profile Locations accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein.
