Foreign students make up majority of the population increase in UK

Newly released official data from the Office for National Statistics show that net migration to Britain has apparently hit a record high of 252,000 last year.

Let us examine the data further.

There were 591,000 arrivals out of which 238,000 (record high) were students. However, the data does not mention how many of the students are from Non-EU countries.

Many experts question the classification of students as immigrants- tourists would be a better option. It should be noted that majority of students go back to their home countries after completion of their studies - normally between 1-4 years. Non-EU students can only take part time jobs during term time and contrary to what so many seem to believe, they do not have access to public funding (no benefits - Job seekers allowance, Housing, Child , etc.).

Anyway, the total arrivals (not students) = 353,000. What the reports do not mention is the number of British citizens coming back home from other countries. For example, reports in the the Australian Press indicate that a high number of Brits are going back to the UK.

Apparently the increase is because of a fall in emigration is falling. Only 174,000 Brits left the UK to work abroad - a fall from 203,000 in the previous year.

According to the Guardian report, Matt Cavanagh, of the Institute of Public Policy Research was reported as saying that the Conservatives had made a mistake of choosing 'net immigration' as their political target. He adds:

"The government cannot control emigration, just like it cannot control immigration from the EU, so it ends up trying to clamp down even harder on those areas of immigration it can control. But these are the areas most valuable to our economy, like overseas students and skilled workers from outside the EU."

Cap on Skilled Immigration

A permanent annual cap comes in to effect in the UK from today. The cap will be 21,700 annually with 4200 places this month and 1500 each month after that.

Various comments:

"The cap on skilled immigration is an example of how the target is leading to bad policy. It will keep out the highly-skilled migrants who contribute most to the UK economy and to the public purse: the people that the public aren’t especially worried about. " - Reducing Immigration: Caps, limits and the perils of political targets By Sarah Mulley

According to Damian Green “To often over the past ten years it has been the first resort. Britain became addicted to immigration as a solution to a number of problems and we have to wean ourselves off that addiction." - Britain is "addicted to immigration" warns minister by Tom Whitehead.

"This is a short-sighted policy on the part of the government and is indicative of the coalition's chaotic approach to higher education reform. It will hamper universities already struggling to maintain their world-leading status in a hostile funding climate, and will contribute to a decline in "innovation and skills" that we all will be lamenting in ten years' time." - Why the immigration cap spells trouble for universities by Tamson Pietsch

"It is clearly essential that unduly tight restrictions on economic migration should not impede the economic recovery on which so much else depends. This appears unlikely due to the generous limit and partial nature of the cap; it doesn’t cover ICTs or in country extensions." - The cap on economic migration - will it have much effect? Migration Watch UK

Also read Q&A: UK immigration cap By Dominic Casciani