The Future of Student Visas
Executive summary Getting immigration under control must be the first and main priority of any new government. The problem now lies not merely in illegal immigration, which the current government has liked to make a big show of tackling, but the legal routes to entry that have allowed the immigrant population to explode and become […]
Immigration: No cap, no control
Summary 1. There is little doubt that the next set of official migration statistics to issue on 23rd May will confirm that the scale and pace of immigration has run out of control and that the post-Brexit immigration system must bear the bulk of the blame. The only effective way forward is now to impose […]
Labour’s approach to immigration
Summary 1. During Tony Blair’s tenure as the leader of New Labour, there was a substantial rise in immigration, especially from newly joined EU countries in Eastern Europe. Between 1997 and 2010, the yearly net migration rate increased fourfold, resulting in over 2.2 million immigrants added to the UK population, which is more than double […]
Non-UK entry grants under the post-Brexit immigration system
Summary 1. The government promised that its post-Brexit immigration system would reduce overall immigration levels and deliver ‘firmer’ border control. Yet the opposite has happened, as we show below with analysis of Home Office (HO) data. In 2021, there were over 800,000 longer-term entry grants to non-UK nationals for work, study, family and resettlement. Meanwhile, illegal arrivals have tripled since 2018. […]
Rising cost of benefits for asylum claimants
1. The number of people in asylum-related accommodation has tripled in the past decade – from 21,000 in 2012 to 64,000 in the year to September 2021. The government has projected the number could rise to as high as 80,000 by Spring 2022 – an estimate that far outstrips the previous expected figure of 70,000 by 2029 (revealed just […]
Skewering those ‘zombie facts’ – 20 bogus arguments for mass immigration
20 bogus arguments for mass immigration A number of bogus arguments are often deployed in favour of mass immigration. These can be lazily wheeled out and buttressed by misleading or ‘zombie facts’ which refuse to die no matter how often they are proven to be false. Some politicians and commentators love falling back on them, […]
The Points Based System in Australia – Appropriate for the UK?
1. Summary 1.1 The government has promised to introduce an Australian-points based immigration system after Brexit. This paper looks at the Australian system in detail and asks the question of whether it is appropriate for the UK. Importantly, it includes an annual cap on permanent immigration which covers skilled workers: 2. Migration to Australia 2.1 […]
Glossary of the Main Legal Words and Expressions used in the Context of Asylum and Immigration
December 2018 Revision It is hoped that users of the Migration Watch website may find this glossary of assistance in reading other papers on the website or other relevant material. The definitions are not intended to be exhaustive or to carry the same authority as a legal practitioner’s work of reference, but simply to be […]
City of London/PwC Proposal for Regional Immigration Policy
Summary 1. The regional visa system proposed by the City of London and PwC would require a total overhaul of the immigration system causing unnecessary confusion and chaos and would place a significant additional bureaucratic and administrative burden on employers, local authorities and UK Visas and Immigration. The system would also be extremely difficult to […]
Migration Watch UK Comment on result of UK Renegotiation with EU
Commenting, Lord Green of Deddington, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: This deal will do virtually nothing to reduce mass immigration which is the public’s greatest concern.