Immigration revealed: ‘Open Doors’ Britain let in 1.6m people in last 12 months

This report has been co-published with our affiliated organisation, Brexit Facts4EU.Org.  We are most grateful for their original research into the raw data which backs what follows.

The UK’s permanent population increased by almost ¼ million in 2021

A summary of the extraordinary immigration figures just released

The latest figures published on Thursday (26 May 2022) by the Home Office and by the Office for National Statistics make for breathtaking reading.

Our team has spent considerable time analysing the wealth of data, some of which is labelled ‘provisional’ or ‘experimental’. Today we can bring readers a summary of the key information they might wish to know about immigration in the United Kingdom.

Below we summarise UK immigration overall. In our next report we will reveal the truth about immigration of EU nationals into the UK.

Summary

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1. Net increase in UK permanent population

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Centre for International Migration uses the UN-recommended definition of a long-term international migrant: “A person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least a year (12 months), so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence.”

On Thursday the Office for National Statistics said this:

“In the year ending June 2021, we can be confident that long-term international migration continued to add to the UK population.

“Our experimental and provisional estimates suggest that around 239,000 more people moved to the UK than left in the year ending June 2021 (net migration).”

– Office for National Statistics, 26 May 2022

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2. Visas and permits to enter the UK

There were 1,618,367 visas and permits to enter the UK granted in the year ending March 2022. Of the visas granted in the latest 12 months, 38% were to visit, 29% were to study, 17% were to work, 3% were for family reasons, and 13% for other reasons.

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3. Work-related visas

There were 277,069 work-related visas granted in the year ending March 2022 (including dependants). This was a 129% increase on the year ending March 2021 and is 50% higher than in the pre-COVID, pre-Brexit year ending March 2020.

‘Seasonal Workers’ made up over half (53%) of all Temporary Work grants, and saw a large increase, up from 10,656 in the previous year to 32,005 (+200%).

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4. Entry visas for study purposes

In the year ending March 2022, there were 466,611 Sponsored Study visas granted (to both main applicants and their dependants), 58% (+170,368) more than the pre-COVID, pre-Brexit year ending March 2020.

Chinese nationals were the most common nationality granted Sponsored Study visas in the year ending March 2022, with 116,967 visas granted.

Nigerian nationals saw the largest percentage increase in Sponsored Study grants compared with the year ending March 2020, increasing by 49,532 (+529%) to a record high of 58,887, making them the third largest nationality group in the last year.

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5. Family visas

There were 301,830 visas and permits granted for family reasons in the year ending March 2022.

There were 51,148 EUSS family permits issued in the year ending March 2022 to family members of people from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein granted or eligible for settled or pre-settled status through the EU Settlement Scheme.

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6. Asylum applications

There were 55,146 asylum applications (main applicants only) in the UK in the year ending March 2022. This is 56% more than in the pre-COVID, pre-Brexit year ending March 2020 and is higher than at the peak of the European Migration crisis (36,546 in year ending June 2016).

It represents the highest number of asylum applications for almost two decades, since 2003.

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7. Extensions to visas already granted

Excluding extensions granted to individuals who were unable to leave the UK because of COVID-19, there were 401,963 decisions on applications to extend a person’s stay in the UK (including dependants) in the year ending March 2022.

This is 57% more than a year earlier and 33% more than in the pre-COVID, pre-Brexit year ending March 2020.

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8. Rights granted to settle in the UK

There were 111,760 decisions on applications for settlement in the UK in 2021, a 20% increase on the previous year and 18% more than in the pre-Brexit year ending March 2020. Of these, 110,145 (99%) resulted in a grant.

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9. UK citizenships granted

There were 196,085 grants of British citizenship in the year ending March 2022, 20% more than in the pre-Brexit year ending March 2020.

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10. Immigration detentions and returns

25,282 people entered immigration detention in the year ending March 2022, almost double the previous year (when there was a large fall following the COVID-19 outbreak) and 9% higher than pre-pandemic levels in the year ending March 2020 (23,118).

In 2021, enforced returns from the UK decreased to 2,761, 18% fewer than the previous year and 62% fewer than in 2019. The vast majority of enforced returns in the latest year were of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) and a majority were EU nationals.