Immigration by Category: Workers, Students, Family Members, Asylum Applicants

This briefing examines immigration by category. The analysis distinguishes between European and non-European migrants and among four basic types: work, study, family, and asylum.

Key points

An estimated 53% of immigrants to the UK in 2009 were non-EU nationals.
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Students make up the largest and fastest-growing category of immigrants.
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Work and family migration from outside the EU have both declined since 2005.
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Asylum applicants represent a declining share of migration to the UK in the last decade, down to about 4% of migration to the UK in 2009.
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Administrative data sources and ONS estimates broadly agree on the share of migrants in each category, though family migration is a larger share in visa data than in other sources.
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Understanding the Evidence

This briefing discusses data on migration to the UK in terms of the categories of work, study, family, or asylum. The primary sources are the International Passenger Survey (IPS) conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Long-Term International Migration (LTIM) estimates derived from IPS, and administrative data on entry clearance visas issued and passenger entries recorded from landing cards at ports of entry. Asylum-related entries are handled by the Home Office and tracked in administrative data. Asylum applicants are also incorporated into LTIM, which includes other adjustments and is preferable to pure IPS data when available.

Crucially for this briefing, IPS/LTIM categorizes migrants differently from administrative sources. IPS asks respondents to name their primary “reason for migrating”, and classifies migrants accordingly.

IPS/LTIM also differ from administrative data in terms of who is counted. IPS covers only migrants intending to change their usual place of residence for one year or more. Visa and entry data include short-term migrants and visitors, who cannot always be distinguished from long-term migrants based on available data.

IPS/LTIM data, unlike most administrative data, include migration of EU and British nationals. If work, study, family and asylum are considered “reasons for migration”, it makes little sense to consider EU migrants as a distinct category. If the four basic categories are thought of as different legal grounds for entry, however, then EU nationality (or more precisely EEA/Swiss nationality) can be sensibly considered a fifth category.

More than half of all migrants to the UK are non-European nationals

Total migration to the UK among all nationalities reached a peak of 597,000 in 2006 before dropping to 566,000 in 2009, according to LTIM estimates, as shown in Figure 1. Non-European migration made up 53.5% of the 2009 total, or an estimated 303,000 migrants arriving. EU nationals were an estimated 29.5% of arriving migrants. The remaining 17% were British nationals, who might have been born abroad or who might be returning to the UK after a prolonged absence.

Immigration patterns of non-EU, EU, and British nationals have followed different trends since 1991, as shown in Figure 1. Non-EU inflows increased from 1997 (166,000) until 2004 (370,000) before declining to 303,000 in 2009. Estimated EU (non-British) migration to the UK increased at a lower rate from 1991 (53,000) until 2003 (66,000). It then more than doubled between 2003 and 2004 with the addition of the A8 Eastern European countries to the EU, before falling again in 2009 to 167,000.

Among British nationals, migration to the UK has fluctuated over the last two decades. The total in 1991 (110,000) was actually larger than in 2009 (96,000). Because of this, and because non-British migration has increased, British nationals comprise a decreasing share of total inward migration, falling from 33% of inward migration in 1991 to 17% in 2009. Note that Figure 1 presents immigration, or “inflows”. For net migration by nationality, see the briefing on 'Who Counts as a Migrant? Definitions and their Consequences'.

Figure 1

Work, Family and Asylum rise then fall, while Students continue to increase

LTIM estimates show that formal study was the most common reason given for migration to the UK in 2009, as shown in Figure 2. Migration for the stated purpose of formal study increased from 87,000 (18% of total arrivals) in 2001 to 211,000 (37%) in 2009. The work category fell to 193,000, or 34% of total estimated arrivals, both low points since 2003. (“Work” combines two IPS reasons for migrating: coming for “a definite job” and coming “to look for work”.) Meanwhile, family migration has fluctuated but changed little overall; indeed there were fewer people coming to “accompany or join” family members in 2009 (76,000) than in 1991 (90,000). Family migrants fell from 27% of total inward migration in 1991 to 13% in 2009, mostly because of increases in other categories.

Figure 2

As Figure 2 shows, a substantial proportion of migrants responding to the IPS do not provide a reason for migrating that can be categorized as work, family, study, or asylum. The “other” and “no reason given” categories, taken together, comprised an estimated 15.2% of total inward migration in 2009. This means that IPS data do not categorize an estimated 86,000 migrants according to one of the main reasons for migration. The dotted lines show the LTIM adjustment for asylum applicants’ arrivals (labelled “asylum”) and, next, the author’s calculation of the remaining other/no reason migrants (labelled “other/no reason”). This calculation was made by assuming that asylum applicants are included in the groups of participants classified having “other” or “no reason” as their reason for migrating. The resulting figures are not endorsed by the ONS, and should be taken not as official data but merely as indicative of the possible composition of “other/no reason” migrants. (For depiction of ONS data without this adjustment, see the briefing on 'Long-Term International Migration Flows to and from the UK'.)

Trends similar among non-EU migrants in all data sources

Administrative data sources track arrivals only of non-Europeans (or more precisely, non-EEA/Swiss nationals). Comparing across data sources therefore requires a shift to focus exclusively on non-European nationals. This comparison also requires consideration of how to allocate dependents. The next three charts (Figures 3, 4 and 5) treat dependents as part of the family category, to allow for more direct comparison between administrative data and IPS data.

Turning to focus on non-European migrants only, the main data sets tell a fairly coherent story when taken together. Non EU/EEA migration in each category increased from the 1990s until the mid-2000s, when work and family migration to the UK began to decline but student migration continued to increase. Figures 3, 4 and 5 all show migration to the UK by category, with each figure illustrating a different data set. To see the same data but with each figure illustrating a different category and containing data from multiple data sets, see separate briefings on 'Non-European Student Migration to the UK', 'Non-European Labour Migration to the UK', 'Non-European Migration to the UK: Family and Dependents' (forthcoming) and 'Migration to the UK: Asylum'.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Note: Dependents of migrants included in family category. Chart also includes asylum applicants from different administrative data sources.

Figure 5

Note: Data based on samples of landing cards. Sampling techniques were improved in 2003, making pre-2003 data not strictly comparable. Dependents of migrants included in family category. Chart also includes asylum applicants from different administrative data sources.

Immigration of students (excluding dependents) increased dramatically over time in all three data sets. Visas to students (excluding student visitors of six months or less) increased by 53% in the period 2005-2009, with much of the increase concentrated in the one-year change from 2008 (207,785 visas) to 2009 (273,235). Student visas then fell to 253,845 in 2010. Passenger entry data show a 19% increase in entering students from 2008 to 2009 alone. Longer term trends here make less sense because the the Home Office made significant changes to passenger entry data collection and calculation in 2003-2004 and 2008 that could account for the seemingly sharp declines. (Improved techniques for sampling from landing cards began in mid-2003; student visitors began to be tracked separately in passenger entry data in late 2007.) Work-related entries in pre-1997 categories appear in the chart above as well, showing again that earlier passenger entry data are not directly comparable to recent years' data.

Non-EU migration for work has also increased greatly over the past two decades, but has declined since the early-to mid-2000s. All three data sources considered here show declines of between 33% and 42% from 2005 to 2009. These declines do not include the effects of A8 accession, which occurred in 2004. Note that in 1997 and again in 2000, some categories of passengers entering for work, including domestic workers, au pairs, working holidaymakers, and seasonal agricultural workers, began to be counted as such, accounting for a sizable portion of the increase over time in this trend. The dotted line shows pre-1997 categories only. Non-EU family migration has increased and decreased at the same times as the other categories, but has shown less growth than other categories since the 1990s. According to IPS estimates, non-EU family migration increased from 42,000 in 1991 to 51,000 in 2009, peaking in 2004 and 2006. Passenger entries show a larger increase for families and dependents, from 47,650 in 1991 to a peak of 123,475 in 2006 before falling to 95,965 in 2009. (These numbers include dependents of asylum applicants, added from Home Office asylum data.) The majority of this growth comes from dependents of migrants in other categories, rather than from "main applicant" family migrants.

Visa data on family migrants are more complicated because they provide the option of including EEA family permits, which allow the non-EEA national spouse or partner of an EEA national to come to the UK to join that spouse or partner. Including EEA family permits along with all dependents provides the largest estimates of family migration by far, with numbers peaking at 215,670 in 2006 before dropping to 175,455 in 2009 and 180,280 in 2010. These numbers also include dependents of migrants in all categories, with asylum applicants' dependents again added from Home Office asylum data.

Asylum, meanwhile, increased until about 2002 and then declined. Asylum seekers (main applicants only) made up 4.4% of total annual immigration in 2009, by LTIM estimates. (See the briefing on 'Migration to the UK: Asylum' for more detail.)

Grouping dependents with main applicants shrinks family category

Dependents of arriving migrants can be grouped in the same category as the “main applicant” in the family, or they can be treated as family migrants, just like people coming to live in Britain with their British spouse. Not surprisingly, analyses grouping dependents with the main applicant makes the family category look smaller relative to the other three categories, though trends remain similar. Figure 6 shows how the relative sizes of the categories change depending on treatment of dependents. For example, the work category becomes larger than the family category even in visa data if it includes dependents. IPS/LTIM data do not make such as distinction, as dependents are grouped with everyone migrating to the UK to “accompany or join” family.

Figure 6

Note: Dependents of migrants grouped with main applicants.

Numbers higher in administrative sources, but percentages by category are similar

As Figure 7 shows, all three data sources paint a similar portrait of the relative share of each category in 2009 inflows. In each source, students were the largest share, outnumbering the next largest category by a ratio of more than 2 to 1. Work and family came next. Work migrants outnumber family migrants in IPS and passenger entries, but the reverse is true in visa data. Administrative data shows that asylum applicants are the smallest group, whether compared to IPS, visas or passenger entry data.

Figure 7

But when viewed as raw numbers, the administrative sources count many more migrants in each category than the IPS estimates. This is discussed in more detail below.

Evidence gaps and limitations

The existing evidence base on migration by category has several key limitations. Most important, there is a striking discrepancy between administrative sources and IPS estimates.

Several identifiable factors seem to contribute to these differences but may not be sufficient for a full explanation (Migration Advisory Committee 2010). First, the IPS uses the UK/UN definition of a migrant as someone staying in the UK for at least one year, while administrative data sources do not. The IPS includes a question asking arriving migrants and visitors how long they plan to stay in the UK; only those planning to stay for at least a year are counted as migrants. Visas and passenger entry data do not attempt to systematically exclude people arriving for less than twelve months, and surely include an unknown number of arrivals who will not stay long enough to qualify as migrants. ONS publishes data on short-term migration (between one and twelve months stay), but these are not directly comparable to administrative sources.

Second, visa data include people who never come to the UK, despite having legal permission. There are no reliable data on this number. A recent report on international students (Home Office 2010b) found that 20% of prospective foreign students issued Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies had no record of ever coming to the UK. But this figure was drawn from a non-representative sample of educational institutions, so one cannot be confident in generalising it to all students.

Passenger entry data include other anomalies. For example, 2009 entries of work migrants exceed the number of visas issued, which is difficult to explain. Clandestine entries of workers without visas cannot explain the discrepancy, as both visas and passenger entries are administrative data that include legal, detected entries only.

The IPS and LTIM also have the inherent limitations of a sample survey. IPS estimates are not exact counts of migrants but rather are associated with margins of error. For overall 2009 immigration figures, the estimated margin of error was +/- 2.9% of the total, or 15,300 migrants. Rather than quoting a precise figure, it is more accurate to say that ONS estimates allow for 95% confidence that immigration fell between 498,100 and 558,000.

It is also worth noting that the IPS scaling had to be readjusted after the 2001 Census, because LTIM estimates of total net flows did not match the population change from net migration revealed by the Census (Migration Advisory Committee 2010). This issue was resolved, but we do not know whether the new LTIM data will reconcile with 2011 Census data.

Administrative data sources have weaknesses as well. They exclude EEA/A8 and British nationals, which make up a portion of official net migration estimates from ONS—close to half in 2009, as shown above. As noted above, administrative data also do not match up well with the official definition of a migrant, especially in terms of length of stay.

And, while visa data reflects actual counts of visas issued, passenger entry data provide only estimates based on a selected sample of landing cards rather than a complete count. Because sampling techniques changed in 2003, trends dating back past this change are not reliable (Home Office 2010a: 105, n1.3).

In addition, no data set perfectly categorizes all migrants by category. IPS, relying on self-report, is left with some percentage (15% overall, 7% for non-EU migrants) who do not give a reason that can be coded into the standard categories. IPS also does not capture many asylum seekers with its interviews (leaving ONS to use administrative data on asylum applications for its LTIM series estimates). Passenger entry data includes a large number of respondents in a residual “other” category, which include asylum-related cases; people “of independent means, and their dependents”; and dependents of NATO forces (Home Office 2010a: Table 1.3, n10). In some publications, the “other” category also includes additional categories such as children and dependents (Home Office 2007: Table 2.2, n5). Visas match categories more completely, but are vulnerable to the problems mentioned above.

References

Home Office. “Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2009.” Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Home Office, London, 2010a.
Home Office. “Overseas Students in the Immigration System: Types of Institution and Levels of Study.” UK Border Agency, Home Office, London, 2010b.
Home Office. “Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2006.” Home Office Command Paper, Home Office, London, 2007.
Migration Advisory Committee. “Limits on Migration: Limits on Tier 1 and Tier 2 for 2011/12 and Supporting Policies.” UK Border Agency, London, 2010.
ONS, “Methodology to Estimate Total International Migration 1991 to 2007.” Office for National Statistics, Newport, 2007. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_population/Methodology-to-e....