According to the Office for National Statistics, net migration – the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving – was 606,000 this year. In 2022, a total of 1.2 million people moved to the UK, while 557,000 left the country.
In 2022, a total of 1.2 million people moved to the UK, while 557,000 left the country. (Representative photo of the file)Listen to this article
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The number of people moving to Britain hit a record high of more than 600,000 in 2022, government figures showed on Thursday.
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According to the Office for National Statistics, net migration – the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving – was 606,000 this year. In 2022, a total of 1.2 million people moved to the UK, while 557,000 left the country.
The net number has increased from almost 500,000 in 2021.
Statistics Bureau said the record was due to “a series of unprecedented world events throughout 2022 and the lifting of restrictions following the coronavirus pandemic.” As well as people arriving in the UK to work, the figure also includes tens of thousands of international students and almost 200,000 people who have arrived as part of special programs for people fleeing the war in Ukraine and China’s crackdown on Hong Kong.
The high figure will reignite the debate over Britain’s exit from the European Union, sparked in part by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people from across Europe in the years leading up to the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Brexit advocates said leaving the EU – which gives citizens of all member countries the right to live and work in everyone else – would allow the UK to control its borders. Many who voted for Brexit thought immigration would fall, but the opposite is true.
While the number of people moving to the UK from EU countries fell to 151,000 in 2022, the number from outside the Union was 925,000.
First publication on: 25-05-2023 at 16:39 IST
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