Commentary

  1. Evidence and values - the UK migration debate 2011-2013
    24 Apr 2013
    In the two years since the Migration Observatory was launched in March 2011, immigration policy has consistently been a major issue for the UK’s policy makers, media and public. The coalition government has made a series of significant policy changes aimed at reducing net migration, among other goals, while migration continues to be among the most...
  2. Migration Observatory: Independent and Evidence-Based
    13 Apr 2013
    Today the Daily Mail – a British tabloid newspaper – features an attack on the independence of the Migration Observatory. This attack is unfounded. The Observatory is, and will remain, committed to independent analysis of data relating to immigration and other migration issues affecting the UK. Through this approach we have earned a reputation as...
  3. Romania and Bulgaria: The accession guessing game
    8 Feb 2013
    On 1 January 2013 the European Union began a one-year countdown to the end of labour market restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria (the 'A2'), when citizens of these countries will have the same right as all other EU citizens to live and work in any country in the union. The end of these restrictions creates an expectation of increasing rates of...
  4. Pole position - New Census data shows ten-fold growth of England and Wales’ Polish population
    11 Dec 2012
    Today’s (11 December 2012) release of new data from the 2011 Census provides a wealth of information about the foreign-born populations of England and Wales. The most obvious change is the tenfold increase in the countries’ Polish-born population, which has grown from just 58,000 in 2001 to 579,000 in 2011. The data also shows a rise in the Indian...
  5. Student visas and long-term immigration estimates: A simple relationship?
    7 Dec 2012
    Last week (29 November 2012) the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released the new provisional long-term migration estimates, which show a decline in overall net migration to an estimated 183,000 for the year to March 2012, down from 242,000 for the previous year. The decline was driven by both increasing emigration and falling immigration....
  6. A degree of confusion – what do people in the UK think about international students?
    19 Sep 2012
    This week (September 17 2012) details of a new survey were published by MigrationWatch – a pressure group campaigning for lower immigration – which found that a large majority of people in Britain (70%) support a limit to the number of student migrants coming to the UK. The report adds that large majorities want to see people with student...
  7. Entries, Exits and Errors
    30 Aug 2012
    Today (30 August 2012) the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released the provisional estimate for net migration in 2011, indicating that it was 216,000, down from an estimated 252,000 in 2010. But another important new number was published today alongside the net migration estimate. For the first time, the ONS provided an indication of the...
  8. The EU shuffle: How does freedom of movement in the EU affect migration to and from the UK?
    29 Jun 2012
    In recent weeks EU migration to the UK has become – once again – a political hot potato. Home Secretary Theresa May suggested that the UK was considering “contingency plans” to deal with increased immigration from the European Union in the event of significant problems in the Eurozone and Labour leader Ed Miliband focused on the EU in a speech...
  9. Under Control?
    24 May 2012
    Today the Office for National Statistics has released quarterly figures showing that net migration, in the year to September 2011 remained virtually unchanged at 252,000. The data suggest that the government still has a very long way to go if it hopes to hit its target of net migration in the ‘tens of thousands’ by 2015. To achieve this target,...
  10. A magnet for migrants? How does the UK’s migrant population growth compare with that in other high-income countries?
    13 Apr 2012
    As the global population has increased considerably in the last two decades, so too has the number of international migrants - which increased from 156 million in 1990 to 214 million in 2010 according to UN data. Over the same period the number of migrants in the UK has increased to historically high levels.  But has the UK experienced more...
  11. The net migration bounce
    29 Feb 2012
    The recent Migration Advisory Committee report into the new cap on labour immigration from outside the EU contains a very interesting graph (on page 165), which highlights an important issue for the net-migration debate: even if the Government manages to hit the elusive “tens of thousands” net migration target by 2015, net migration is unlikely to...
  12. New migrants, "new" jobs, old confusion…
    1 Feb 2012
    Any press release or report that has the word “immigration” alongside “jobs”, “benefits”, or “unemployment” has a good chance of igniting furious debate in the British media. This was evident once again in January this year when a flurry of reports about immigration, unemployment and benefits suddenly filled Britain’s news media (Daily Express...
  13. Migrant workers: Taking our jobs - or not?
    18 Jan 2012
    Three reports about the impact of immigration on the UK labour market, all apparently contradicting one another, have come out in less than a week. The first of the reports – from MigrationWatch – was published on Monday 9th of January 2012, and argues that it is “more than a coincidence” that the increase in the employment of East European...
  14. The variations enigma: Regional differences in support for reducing immigration to the UK
    28 Nov 2011
    When the Migration Observatory recently undertook a survey designed to help us to better understand what people in Britain think about immigration, one element that we were keen to examine was regional variations in public opinion around the UK. These regional data are extremely interesting and suggest some pronounced differences between...
  15. A loose fitting cap: why is the limit on skilled non-EU workers undersubscribed?
    27 Oct 2011
    In April of this year (2011) the government introduced one of its "flagship" immigration policies – a cap on skilled labour immigration from outside the EU. The cap was the subject of heated debate but – surprisingly to many – has, so far, been substantially undersubscribed. In the first five  months of the cap, which releases a limited...
  16. Targeting uncertainty? EU migration in the UK
    25 Aug 2011
    Today’s migration data release from the ONS makes the government’s efforts to reduce net migration from 239,000 in 2010 (the number reported today) to the tens of thousands by 2015 more difficult than ever. Today’s figures show the highest annual level of net migration since 2004 and a 21% increase from 2009. One of the key difficulties and...
  17. Remittances: the invisible billions
    12 Aug 2011
    When thinking about ‘remittances’ – the money sent from a resident of one country to a person elsewhere in the world – it is easy to imagine a migrant working and living in a high-income nation sending back money to their family in a low-income country. But the reality is rather different. High-income countries around the world are major receivers...
  18. Population - how big is too big?
    20 Jul 2011
    The increasing size of the UK population has become a major theme in the debate on immigration in the UK recently. Reports often cite concerns that the UK population is heading toward 70 million, and argue that this is too high, unsustainable, or not in the national interest (Daily Telegraph 6 January 2010, Daily Mail 30 June 2011, Daily Mail 25...
  19. Off Target: Government policies are not on track to reducing net migration to the tens of thousands by 2015
    20 Jun 2011
    The release of the Migration Observatory’s latest commentary “Family Fortunes”, which looks at potential changes to the family migration route and the impacts that may deliver, completes a suite of analysis pieces considering the government’s changes to immigration policy. These pieces have all been undertaken in the light of Conservative...
  20. Family fortunes: How far can reforms to family migration go towards reducing net migration?
    17 Jun 2011
    The UK government is soon expected to start a consultation on what to do to reform the “family migration route” which allows people from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to come to the UK to live with family members who are either here already, or who have been granted permission to come to the UK. Reforming the family migration route is...