Report: UK Immigration After Brexit - Dr Matteo Pazzona

Despite the claim of pro-Brexit campaigners that immigration in the UK would diminish with new conditions, in 2022, more than 1 million people migrated to the UK, effecting a net migration of 504,000 people, a +27% increase compared to 2021. Learn more in the report co-authored by Dr Matteo Pazzona (Brunel University London). 

Key conclusions: 

• It's been 2.5 years since a new immigration policy aimed to change foreign citizen inflow to the UK. Immigration patterns' impact is different from pro-Brexit expectations.
• EU citizens' arrivals have decreased, but non-EU arrivals surged, hitting a record-high net migration of +638,000 in the past two years.
• The rise of non-EU immigrants to the UK is driven by students and skilled workers, mostly coming from China, India and Nigeria.
• New policy restricts EU immigration to UK, including higher tuition fees for EU students, now aligned with the rates for other international students.
• New policy limits EU workers to skilled jobs, sets salary threshold, and shifts worker origins. France and Germany now have topped the take up of work visas, instead of Romania and Poland.
• With the current policy and EU-UK relations, ongoing trends are likely to continue. However, some geopolitical factors contributed to the net migration peak. Special humanitarian routes for Ukrainians and British Nationals Overseas (from Hong Kong) increased influx
• In spite of the harsher conditions set by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the number of irregular migrants coming to the UK marked a 30-year record peak last year. 

Read the full report here: Federico Filauri (University of London), Emre Gökçeli (Kütahya Dumlupınar University), Matteo Pazzona (Brunel University London), UK Immigration After Brexit. Report

 

 

 

Reported by:

Eliza Kania
eliza.kania@brunel.ac.uk