Immigration decreases by 11,000 in the year ended March 2016, asylum claims increase by 34%
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday released its latest migration statistics quarterly report (available here).
According to the ONS, net migration for the year ending March 2016 stood at +327,000, a decrease compared to the corresponding period last year and a decrease compared to the year ending December 2015 as covered in the previous ONS quarterly report.
The ONS says, however, that the changes were not statistically significant and although immigration and net migration show small decreases, the trend at present seems broadly flat.
The actual figures for the year ending March 2016 were:
• net migration = +327,000 (down 9,000 from year ending (YE) March 2015 but not statistically significant), comprising +180,000 EU citizens, +190,000 non-EU citizens, and -43,000 British citizens
• immigration = 633,000 (down 11,000 from YE March 2015 but not statistically significant)
• emigration = 306,000 (down 2,000 from YE March 2015 but not statistically significant)
Nicola White, Head of International Migration Statistics at the ONS, said: "Net migration remains at record levels although the recent trend is broadly flat. The influx of Romanians and Bulgarians has also reached a new high, although that's off-set by falls in non-EU immigration and from other central and eastern European countries. Work remains the main reason for migration, followed by study which has seen a significant fall in the number of people coming to the UK for education."
BBC News highlighted that the ONS report found that Poland has overtaken India as the most common non-UK country of birth for people living in the UK, with an estimated 831,000 Polish-born residents in 2015.
The ONS report also found that asylum claims in the year ending June 2016 increased by over 30% compared to the previous year to reach 44,323 (including dependants).
According to the ONS, it is the sixth successive year in which asylum applications have risen, although the number of applications is still less than half the level of the peak in 2002 (103,081) and relatively low compared with some other European countries.
Reuters reported that more than 36,000 people applied for asylum in Britain in the first half of 2016, a 41% increase on the same period in 2015.
Reuters says it is the highest number in over a decade, as people fleeing wars and conflict in the Middle East, Africa and Asia has seen Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War Two.
The largest number of asylum claims in Britain came from people who have left Iran (4,910), Iraq (3,199), Pakistan (2,992), Eritrea (2,790), Afghanistan (2,690) and Syria (2,563).