Take back control. Almost seven years after the British voted to leave the European Union, seduced by the promise to "regain control of our own borders", the pro-Brexit campaign slogan has achieved precisely the opposite of what it intended: as net immigration to the UK reaches all-time highs.
The net balance of immigrants who arrived in the United Kingdom last year, according to figures provided this Thursday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), was 606,000 people, a figure that represents a record increase of 20%. compared to the 504,000 registered the previous year.
In 2022, the total number of immigrants arriving in the country was around 1.2 million, while emigration was estimated at 557,000, according to the agency. This increase has been fueled by the entry into the UK of third-country nationals to study, work or flee conflict or oppression. According to data from the ONS, among non-EU citizens there were 361,000 students and their dependent family members, 235,000 people for work reasons, 172,000 for humanitarian reasons -from countries such as Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan-, and 76,000 asylum seekers.
In the weeks prior to the publication of these figures, conservative ministers indicated to the media that the net balance could be between 700,000 and one million people. While the final immigrant total was not that high, the figure is more than double that recorded in 2019, when the Tories once again promised to "reduce the number to a maximum of 100,000 people", echoing Theresa's manifesto. May 2017.
The publication of these data has placed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, on the ropes, who argued that leaving the community bloc would allow them to take control of the United Kingdom's borders. The average net immigration before Brexit was between 200,000 and 250,000 a year. Last October, Braverman declared her goal was to reduce the number to "tens of thousands" and Sunak has previously stuck to Boris Johnson's promise to bring it below 245,000. This week, however, he has refused to set a specific goal.
Since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, successive governments have promised that immigration should not exceed 100,000 people a year. But the truth is that it does not stop rising and the promise of Brexit, which has turned out to be little more than a mirage, is now causing an internal crisis in the party.
In an attempt to regain control of the situation, the Sunak government announced a new measure on Tuesday to reduce the number of foreign arrivals at its borders. From January 2024, the UK will ban overseas students from bringing dependent family members with them.
"I am pleased to announce a new package of measures to help achieve our goal of reducing net migration, while supporting the government's priority of growing the economy," Braverman said in a parliamentary statement.
Specifically, they will abolish the right of foreign students to bring dependents -unless they are studying research programmes, be it a master's degree or a doctorate- and will put an end to the possibility of them changing from a study visa to one of work before finishing their studies.
According to Home Office figures released in February, 135,788 visas were granted to dependent family members of foreign students in 2022, almost nine times the number of 16,047 in 2019. Nigeria was the country with the highest number of dependents of student visa holders in 2022, with 60,923. India came in second, increasing from 3,135 in 2019 to 38,990 in 2022.
However, some fear that changes to the rules on dependent family members will have a "disproportionate impact on women and students in certain countries." Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, has urged the Government, in a statement sent to this newspaper, to "work with the sector to limit and monitor the impact on particular groups of students, and on universities, which are already subject to severe financial pressures.
Speaking to The Guardian, Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, stressed the negative impact that this measure could have on the British education sector: "Although some students may choose to separate from their family during their studies, many others will ultimately decide not to come to the UK. So the country is likely to be somewhat less attractive to postgraduate students, bringing less money to the industry."
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