Net migration – the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving – was 606,000 for the year, according to the Office for National Statistics. A total of 1.2 million people moved to the UK in 2022, while 557,000 left.
A total of 1.2 million people moved to the UK in 2022, while 557,000 left. (Representative file photo) Listen to this article Your browser does not support the audio element.
The number of people moving to Britain will reach a record 600,000 in 2022, government figures showed on Thursday.
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Net migration – the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving – was 606,000 for the year, according to the Office for National Statistics. A total of 1.2 million people moved to the UK in 2022, while 557,000 left.
The net figure rose from just under 500,000 in 2021.
The Bureau of Statistics said the record level was due to “an unprecedented series of global events in 2022 and the lifting of restrictions following the coronavirus pandemic”. As well as people coming to Britain to work, this figure includes tens of thousands of international students and almost 200,000 people who arrived under special programs for people fleeing the war in Ukraine and Chinese pressure in Hong Kong.
The high figure will renew the debate over Britain’s departure from the European Union, which was partly motivated by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people from across Europe in the years before the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Brexiteers say leaving the EU — which gives citizens of any member country the right to live and work in all others — would allow Britain to control its own borders. Many who voted for Brexit thought immigration would fall, but the opposite was true.
While the number of people moving to Britain from EU countries fell to 151,000 in 2022, the number of people from outside the bloc was 925,000.
First published: 25-05-2023 at 16:39 IST