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Hindustan Times
24-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Indian students lead exodus trend in UK's latest migration data
Indian students and workers are the largest group of foreigners to have left the UK over the past year amid tightening visa and immigration policies, showed the country's latest migration statistics, released on Thursday. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis for 2024, around 37,000 Indians who came for study reasons, 18,000 for work reasons and 3,000 for other unspecified reasons led the emigration trend followed by Chinese students and workers (45,000). Nigerians (16,000), Pakistanis (12,000) and Americans (8,000) completed the top five emigrating nationalities, resulting in an overall net migration fall by 4,31,000 last year – almost half the total from the year before. 'Among people emigrating, India was the most common nationality,' reads the ONS analysis, based on UK Home Office data. 'Study-related emigration was the most common reason for the five most frequent non-EU (European Union) nationalities to emigrate in YE (year-ending) December 2024. The increase in long-term emigration of non-EU+ nationals who originally arrived on study-related visas is primarily being driven by the large numbers of Indian and Chinese nationals leaving in YE December 2024,' it notes. Mary Gregory, director of Population Statistics at the ONS, said the fall is driven largely by falling numbers of people coming to work and study in the UK, particularly student dependents. 'There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased,' she said. The UK government hailed the drop in net migration, an issue that has dominated the political agenda amid soaring figures and the far-right anti-immigration Reform party making considerable gains in recent elections. 'Under the Tories net migration reached nearly 1 million – roughly the size of the population of Birmingham. I know you are angry about this, and I promised you I would change it,' British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a social media statement. 'Today's stats show we have nearly halved net migration in the last year. We're taking back control,' he said. The drop is the largest ever recorded for a 12-month period and marks the most significant calendar-year fall in net migration since the early stages of the Covid pandemic, according to experts. Meanwhile, long-term immigration to the UK fell below 1 million for the first time in around three years.
Epoch Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Net Migration Halves in a Year, But Still Far Higher Than Pre-Pandemic: ONS
Net migration nearly halved in the course of one year, but still remains far higher than in the previous years before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In the year to December 2024, the difference between the number of people moving to the UK and leaving was an estimated 431,000, down 49.9 percent from 860,000 the year before, the largest numerical drop in any 12-month period. The ONS's director of population statistics, Mary Gregory, said on Thursday that the decline was largely driven by a falling number of immigrants coming to the UK to work and study, 'particularly student dependants.' This followed policy change from early 2024 by the previous Conservative government, which put in place Long-Term Immigration Falls The ONS said that the largest drop in immigration was from non-EU nationals coming here to work, falling 108,000, or 49 percent. Immigration for study purposes declined by 17 percent. Long-term immigration also fell to 948,000, down 28.5 percent from 1,326,000 in the previous year, the first time in three years the figure was below 1 million. Emigration also rose by around 11 percent to an estimated 517,000, up from 466,000 on the previous year. Gregory said that was especially owing to 'people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.' Related Stories 5/12/2025 5/14/2025 The impact of Conservative policy on dependant visas saw an 86 percent (105,000) reduction in study dependants, and a 35 percent (81,000) decrease in the number of work dependants. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that the fall in net migration is 'welcome after the figures quadrupled to nearly a million in the last parliament.' 'Our Immigration White Paper sets out radical reforms to further reduce net migration,' she added. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp He added that the figures were 'still far too high and need to go down a lot further.' Higher Than Pre-Pandemic Levels While these figures are a dramatic decline on 2022 and 2023, they are still far higher than the pre-pandemic era, and well above the pre-Brexit peak of roughly 300,000. Net migration was broadly flat in the years leading up to the lockdown, standing at 208,000 in 2017, 276,000 in 2018, and 184,000 in 2019. They then fell sharply in 2020 to 93,000, when travel restrictions were put in place. Net migration then rose to 484,000 in 2021, 873,000 in 2022, and dropped slightly to 860,000 in 2023. Estimated net migration to the UK. PA Media The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford noted that this 'recording-breaking decline' was possible 'primarily because numbers had previously been so high.' 'The declines reflect a period of policy liberalisation post-Brexit which saw net migration reach a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023, followed by restrictions in early 2024, both under the previous government,' the Migration Observatory said. For scale of how large a number current net migration figures still are, political commentator Matt Goodwin Migration Observatory researcher Ben Brindle said that net migration figures will continue to fall, as the previous government's restrictions 'are not yet fully visible in the data.' 'Last week's policy proposals should reduce migration further, though by a small amount. Because these declines will not necessarily take us to particularly low levels, by historical standards,' he added. 'Relatively Small' Economic Impact The Labour government has maintained the previous administration's visa rules, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announcing further measures to bring down legal immigration in the White Paper These include ending the recruitment of overseas care workers, raising the skills requirements for visas to degree level, and charging universities a levy on international students. Migration Observatory Director Madeleine Sumption said the economic impact of this fall in migrant workers is 'actually likely to be relatively small.' She added, 'That's because the groups that have driven the decline, such as study and work dependants, are neither the highest skilled, highest-paid migrants who make substantial contributions to tax revenues, nor the most disadvantaged groups that require substantial support.' Similarly, Downing Street indicated that it was not concerned that a fall in migrant workers would lead to a workforce shortage. The prime minister's official spokesman said, 'We are, for the first time, setting out a strategy to properly bring together a domestic skills strategy together with an immigration strategy.' 'So we will be reducing our reliance on overseas labour by training up our domestic workforce and ensuring, as the public rightly expects, that our border system is secure,' he added. PA Media contributed to this report.
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Business Standard
23-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Record 58,000 Indians left UK in 2024 due to tougher immigration rules
The number of Indians leaving the United Kingdom hit a new high last year, with 58,000 departures recorded in 2024, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Indian students and workers made up the largest share of non-EU nationals emigrating from the country. At the same time, only 156,000 Indians moved to the UK during the year for work, study and other reasons, marking a sharp drop from the 277,000 recorded in 2023. Indian students and workers lead UK emigration According to the ONS, of the 58,000 Indians who left the UK in 2024: < 37,000 originally came for study < 18,000 came for work < 3,000 had other reasons for migration 'Among people emigrating, Indian was the most common nationality,' reads the ONS analysis. It added that most of the emigration was among students, particularly Indians and Chinese nationals who had come to the UK on study-related visas. 'Study-related emigration was the most common reason for the five most frequent non-EU nationalities to emigrate in year-ending December 2024,' the report noted. Chinese nationals followed closely behind Indians, with 45,000 departures. Nigerians (16,000), Pakistanis (12,000) and Americans (8,000) also featured among the top nationalities leaving the UK. Mary Gregory, director of population statistics at the ONS, said, 'There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.' Net migration to UK nearly halved The UK's net migration fell by nearly 50 per cent in 2024. Long-term immigration dropped to 948,000 from 1.33 million the previous year, while emigration rose to 517,000 from 466,000. The result was a net migration figure of 431,000, down sharply from the year before. According to the ONS, this is the largest fall in net migration recorded in a single calendar year since the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. 'This drop is because of the visa rule changes that I put in place,' said former home secretary James Cleverly, who served in the Conservative government under Rishi Sunak. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also commented on the figures on social media: 'Today's stats show we have nearly halved net migration in the last year. We're taking back control.' New White Paper proposes sweeping visa restrictions On May 12, 2025, the Labour government released an Immigration White Paper proposing sweeping changes across work, study and settlement categories. The key proposals include: < Doubling the settlement period from five to ten years < Extending English language requirements to more applicants, including dependants < Reducing the Graduate Route visa post-study duration from two years to 18 months < Raising salary thresholds for skilled worker visas < Scrapping the Health and Care Worker visa for new applicants The impact on Indian nationals could be considerable. In 2023, around 1,40,000 health and care worker visas were issued, of which Indians received approximately 39,000. UK home secretary Yvette Cooper said, 'These figures show a big increase in returns of failed asylum seekers and foreign national offenders, record levels of illegal working penalties, and the asylum backlog and hotel use coming down.' Indian immigration and emigration UK from between 2021-2024 Emigration of Indians from the UK 2021: 17,000 (7,000 study-related, 9,000 work-related) 2022: 20,000 (12,000 study-related, 7,000 work-related) 2023: 40,000 (24,000 study-related, 15,000 work-related) 2024: 58,000 (37,000 study-related, 18,000 work-related) Immigration of Indians to the UK 2021: 150,000 (77,000 study-related, 62,000 work-related) 2022: 267,000 (140,000 study-related, 116,000 work-related) 2023: 277,000 (136,000 study-related, 132,000 work-related) 2024: 156,000 (82,000 study-related, 68,000 work-related) The full ONS report released on May 23, 2025, includes further breakdowns by visa category and duration of stay.
Mint
23-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Indians lead exodus and immigration trend in UK, reveal new data
Indian students and workers are among the largest group of foreigners to have left the UK over the past year, showed the country's latest migration statistics released on Thursday. 'Among people emigrating [leaving one's country to live in another], Indian was the most common nationality,' reads the ONS analysis, based on UK Home Office data. It also noted that 'Indian was the most common non-EU+ nationality to immigrate [come into another country to live] to the UK.' The analysis was mentioned in the report titled "Long-term international migration, provisional: year ending December 2024." According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis for 2024, around 37,000 Indians who came for study reasons, 18,000 for work reasons and 3,000 for other unspecified reasons led the emigration trend. In total, around 58,000 Indians emigrated from the UK in the last year. This was followed by Chinese students and workers (45,000), Nigerians (16,000), Pakistanis (12,000) and Americans (8,000) completed the top five emigrating nationalities, resulting in an overall net migration fall by 431,000 last year – almost half the total from the year before. Emigration, or those leaving the country, rose by around 11 per cent to an estimated 517,000 for the year to December, up from 466,000 in the previous year. 'Study-related emigration was the most common reason for the five most frequent non-EU (European Union) nationalities to emigrate in YE (year-ending) December 2024," the report said. It noted, 'The increase in long-term emigration of non-EU nationals who originally arrived on study-related visas is primarily being driven by the large numbers of Indian and Chinese nationals leaving in YE December 2024.' Mary Gregory, Director of Population Statistics at the ONS, was quoted by news agency PTI as saying that the fall is driven largely by falling numbers of people coming to work and study in the UK, particularly student dependents. 'There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased,' she said. The UK government hailed the drop in net migration, an issue that has dominated the political agenda amid soaring figures and the far-right anti-immigration Reform party making considerable gains in recent elections. 'Under the Tories, net migration reached nearly 1 million – roughly the size of the population of Birmingham. I know you are angry about this, and I promised you I would change it,' British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a social media statement. 'Today's stats show we have nearly halved net migration in the last year. We're taking back control,' he said. The drop is the largest ever recorded for a 12-month period and marks the most significant calendar-year fall in net migration since the early stages of the COVID pandemic, according to experts. 'These figures show a big increase in returns of failed asylum seekers and foreign national offenders, record levels of illegal working penalties, and the asylum backlog and hotel use coming down,' said UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. Meanwhile, long-term immigration to the UK fell below 1 million for the first time in around three years. That was estimated to be 948,000 in the year ending December 2024, down by almost a third from 1,326,000 in the previous 12 months and below a million for the first time since the 12 months to March 2022. Former home secretary James Cleverly under the Opposition Conservative Party government led by Rishi Sunak hit back at the Labour administration, saying the fall in net migration was a result of policies he had enacted. 'This drop is because of the visa rule changes that I put in place,' he said.
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Indian students, workers lead exodus trend in UK's latest migration data
LONDON: The impact of the UK's tightening visa and immigration policies is reflected in the country's latest migration statistics released on Thursday, with Indian students and workers among the largest group of foreigners to have left the country over the past year. According to the office for national statistics (ONS) analysis for 2024, around 37,000 Indians who came for study reasons, 18,000 for work reasons and 3,000 for other unspecified reasons led the emigration trend, followed by Chinese students and workers (45,000). Nigerians (16,000), Pakistanis (12,000) and Americans (8,000) completed the top five emigrating nationalities, resulting in an overall net migration fall by 431,000 last year - almost half the total from previous year. "Among people emigrating, Indian was the most common nationality," read the ONS analysis, based on UK home office data. "Study-related emigration was the most common reason for the five most frequent non-EU nationalities to emigrate in YE (year-ending) Dec 2024. The increase in long-term emigration of non-EU+ nationals who originally arrived on study-related visas is being driven by large number of Indian and Chinese nationals leaving in YE Dec 2024." Mary Gregory, director of population statistics at ONS, said the fall is driven largely by falling number of people coming to work and study in the UK, particularly student dependents. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "Today's stats show we have nearly halved net migration in the last year. We are taking back control."
