BritInParis

More pointedly, once again, non-EU migration (i.e. the bit that the government can control) is higher than EU migration. If they really want to bring the numbers down, why don't they?

Giantaxe

"Among the migrants from outside the EU, about a half were students, a quarter workers, and one sixth family members."

So out of a net migration of 196k from outside the EU, 98k were students, 49k presumably came on work visas, and only 33k were family members. (numbers don't add up so I'm not sure what the remaining 16k were).

Also interesting that the number of asylum applications is way lower than it was a decade ago.

BritInParis

Returning British citizens most likely.

Giantaxe

Good point. I see one (minor) reason that net immigration has increased is that emigration has declined, so presumably more Brits are returning than leaving.

Editha

According to the ONS report, immigration is up 84,000 but emigration is down 9,000.

Giantaxe

Next week's issue of The Economist has a nice graph of this. Emigration has now dropped by over 100k (from over 400k to 300k) since the start of the financial crisis.

Bipat

It seems that several issues here are being 'mixed', Asylum seekers and refugees, EU immigrants/non- EU immigrants. The latter have been reduced in numbers. Some in industry and the NHS are complaining that they have a shortage of skilled workers because of this.

BritInParis

Non-EU migration is higher than ever - higher than EU migration, many being students.

Giantaxe

I wouldn't even classify students under migration, especially as the UK has made it so difficult for students to remain in the UK post their studies.

BritInParis

There have been repeated calls for students not to be included in the migration statistics as they are temporary residents. If their status changes and they stay on they can then be included.

Editha

The inclusion of students makes a nonsense of government immigration policy. On the one hand you have the universities minister Jo Johnson saying in June:

Then when the immigration stats come out we have the minister for education calling them 'disappointing' even though 11,000 of the increase are students, which his colleague should be celebrating.

Giantaxe

I wonder whether the government is "scared" of removing students from the statistics because they know UKIP etc will likely jump on it and accuse them of "manipulating" the numbers to make them smaller?

BritInParis

All these non-EU students are paying vastly inflated tuition fees to help keep our tertiary education sector afloat. If numbers dropped it would be a disaster. But since the average Daily Mail reader thinks immigrants = bad and the current government has spent the last ten years reinforcing that message with anti-immigrant rhetoric then they are damned if they do and damned if don't.