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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released their revised figures on net migration for 2024, and have proudly announced that immigration has fallen by nearly 50% to 431,000. While the government will breathe a sigh of relief, this is no time for celebration.
Remember when 100,000 was too high?
Just to break this down a bit further:
- Net migration – the difference between inflows (immigration) and outflows (emigration) – was 431,000.
- Immigration was 948,000.
- Emigration was 517,000.
Net migration may have fallen but the inflow is still eye watering at not far off a million. The fall is mainly due to an increase in emigration. Much of the fall is also because more EU and British nationals have left than have arrived (113,000).
Immigration – legal and illegal – remains alarmingly high and out of control. Today’s statistics underline the dire situation we are in. Net migration is now not only the driver of our exploding population, but it is also pushing us ever closer to the point when the proportion of native British in the population will fall below 50%.
If immigration – the inflow – is to be reduced, the only effective way of doing it is to introduce a cap. Set reasonable limits – both overall and by sector and apply firm control. Higher qualification and earnings thresholds will help to maintain standard but in the end ways will be found to ensure workers, students and dependants qualify for the visas they apply for. Extensions of visas and the granting of indefinite leave must also be firmly controlled. This must also be accompanied by changes to the legal framework and distancing from the international treaties and conventions that tie our hands and prevent us from removing those with no right to be here
But, in short, no cap, no control; without imposing a limit on immigration, we don’t know where we want to go, never mind how to get there. Net migration should be no more than we can cope with and at levels that don’t mean we British identity is disappearing a little less quickly than is now likely. It must also be at a pace that allows to plan for things like housing, the NHS, and – as Emma Taggart wrote for The Telegraph this week – our water supply. We’ve been warning about this for over a decade.
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every week as soon as it is released.