UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman attends the weekly government cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street on May 23, 2023 in London, England.
Leon Neal | Getty Images News | Getty Images
LONDON — U.K. net migration hit a record high of 606,000 in 2022, despite government pledges to scale back the figure.
Figures published Thursday by the country’s national statistics office showed that non-EU nationals accounted for 925,000 long-term arrivals, while 151,000 were from the European Union.
Reducing net migration was a pledge within the ruling Conservative party’s election manifesto in 2019, when the figure was 226,000. The previous figures, out in November, showed net migration was at 504,000 within the 12 months to June.
The federal government has stressed that many recent arrivals are refugees from Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. The proportion of individuals arriving via humanitarian routes increased from 9% to 19% in 2022, in comparison with the 12 months before.
Legal migration is a contentious issue throughout the Conservative party. It comes as the federal government seeks to spice up tepid economic growth and ease tightness within the labor market, which is causing challenges for businesses and driving up wages at a time of sky-high inflation.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he wants net migration below 500,000, across the level it was when he took office last fall.
Nonetheless, he has clashed together with his more hardline interior minister, Suella Braverman, over some proposed measures to bring down the numbers. Sunak has also stressed that migrant employees are essential to sectors including the National Health Service.
In a speech earlier this month, Braverman said: “It is not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration is unsustainable by way of housing supply, service, and community relations.” She also said Britons must be filling job roles experiencing shortages, equivalent to lorry drivers, butchers and fruit pickers.
Latest restrictions
On Tuesday, Braverman’s department announced restrictions on student visas, the most important source of migration to the U.K. Only post-graduate research students will have the ability to bring relations with them to the country under the brand new rules.
The Home Office also said it will ban people “from using a student visa as a backdoor path to work within the U.K.” by stopping them from switching visa types until their studies are finished, and reviewing checks on their proof of funds.
The federal government says that under its post-Brexit points-based immigration system, it has control over its borders and filling labor market gaps.
From 2025, even tourists to the U.K. from the EU and foreign countries including the U.S. will need an electronic visa to enter, with the federal government admitting it doesn’t currently have accurate figures on arrivals and departures.
‘Unfit for purpose’
Nonetheless, employees in lots of sectors say they’re combating recruitment challenges which have been exacerbated by Brexit.
Raj Sehgal, chief executive of Norfolk-based care home group Armscare, told CNBC that vacancies within the sector were at record highs over the past 12 months with over 165,000 posts available, combined with a growing need for services and post-Covid burnout.
It’s difficult to draw young domestic employees to the agricultural areas where many care homes are positioned, he said, and Brexit and the weaker pound have reduced the U.K.’s appeal to EU employees.
“The entire means of employing a migrant employee is totally unfit for purpose, being detrimental to employers who wish to grow and expand the economy,” Sehgal said.
“It’s complicated and dear…for the employee it requires a lengthy and sophisticated means of getting a sponsor, and for employers there may be the fee burden, equivalent to an immigration skills surcharge that acts as greater than a tax on employment.”
CNBC has asked the Home Office for comment on the brand new figures.
