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The government is now attempting to address soaring migration with measures like increasing the minimum earnings threshold for skilled worker visas and incrementally raising earnings thresholds in respect of family visas.
However, recently released data from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, sheds light on why the UK is so attractive to migrants and why immigration is at such record levels. According to Eurostat’s figures, the UK is the eighth easiest nation in Europe and the third easiest in Western Europe for acquiring citizenship. And let’s not forget (the government would like us to) that the revised figures for net migration into the UK reached a record 745,000 for the whole of 2022.
Meanwhile, the perilous Channel crossings, though reduced, still remain a significant concern at 29,437 migrants in 2023. Not exactly, taking back control of our borders or reducing immigration, as were promised.
Raising earning thresholds, although in pretty limp fashion and from an excessively low base, is heading in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go.
The key to getting out of this dangerous situation is to recognise that there is no inconsistency in asserting that some immigration has enriched us culturally and economically, while accepting that there is a strong case for curtailing further large-scale immigration. England, after all, is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, nearly twice as crowded as Germany and more than three times as densely populated as France.
Our population is growing rapidly – an increase of 8 million in 20 years of which 7 million was due to migrants and the children of migrants. This, to our mind, makes a compelling case for safeguarding public infrastructure, social cohesion, and the economy by discouraging significant further immigration.
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 Friday as soon as it is released.