ONS Publishes Latest Migration Statistics Report

The Office for National Statistics has recently published its Migration Statistics Quarterly Report for the year ending June 2014.

The figures show that net long-term migration to the UK was estimated to be 260,000 in the year ending June 2014, which is a statistically significant increase from 182,000 in the previous 12 months.

The statistics also show that:

• There was a statistically significant increase in immigration for work (up 45,000 to 247,000), driven by increases for non-EU citizens (up 14,000), EU2 (Romanian and Bulgarian) citizens (up 11,000) and EU15 (up 10,000). Estimated employment of EU nationals (excluding British) resident in the UK was 16% higher in July to September 2014 compared to the same quarter in 2013.
• 32,000 EU2 citizens immigrated to the UK in the year ending June 2014, a statistically significant increase from 18,000 in the previous 12 months.
• The statistically significant increase of 30,000 in immigration of non-EU citizens to 272,000 was in part driven by an increase in immigration to accompany/join others up 19,000 to 54,000. This follows a steady decline in non-EU immigration since the recent peak of 334,000 in the year ending September 2011.
• Work and study visas grants continued to rise in the year ending September 2014, by 6% (+9,500) and 3% (+6,100) respectively. These trends reflected higher levels of both skilled work visas granted and university sponsored applications.
• There were 24,300 asylum applications in the year ending September 2014, an increase of 2% compared with the previous 12 months (23,800), but low relative to the 2002 peak (84,100).

Commenting on the latest figures, Gerwyn Davies, Labour Market Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said:

“While its right that the Government continues to review the wider societal impact of immigration, it’s important to recognise the vital role that migrants continue to play in a growing UK jobs market. Employers have undoubtedly benefitted from the increased supply of more experienced and highly-qualified migrants from all corners of the globe to fill the sharp increase in the number of vacancies they have created over the past year.”

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