According to fresh data given by the Home Office, the number of foreign workers and students moving to the UK has fallen by almost 30% this year.
The decrease, which occurred in the first five months of this year from 121,000 to 85,200, is consistent with the pledges made by the Labour and Conservative parties to lower net migration.
This is the biggest drop in migration to the UK since the epidemic, with the majority of migrants being skilled workers, students, and holders of health and care visas.
One million and thirteen thousand visas were granted to members of these three categories and their dependents in total last year.
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According to The Telegraph, the government’s actions, such as limiting the ability of foreign workers and students to bring dependents, raising the pay levels for skilled workers, and reducing the number of occupation visa programs available, are mostly to blame for the fall.
The statistics shows that net migration decreased from a record high of 764,000 in the previous year to 685,000 for the year ending December 2023.
The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to “halve” migration and cut it even further each year if re-elected, as part of the Conservative government’s 300,000 immigration reduction plan.
Labour has also promised to lower net migration in its manifesto, but it hasn’t given a deadline or goal for this reduction. The party wants to make immigration and training related by mandating that industries requesting permits for foreign workers first train British nationals.
James Cleverly, the home secretary, claimed responsibility for the drop, saying, “I took action to drive down legal migration.”
According to data this week, applications for visas have decreased by 30% on important routes. Labour resisted these measures whenever it could. He tweeted on his X handle, “Vote Conservative on July 4th if you want to reduce migration.”
Prof. Brian Bell, the head of the Migration Advisory Committee, thinks the prime minister has a “fighting chance” to bring net migration back to pre-pandemic levels by year’s end.
The data shows a notable decline in applications for visas in a number of categories, with visas for foreign workers, students, and their dependents seeing a reduction of 25.4% overall.
Visa applications for health and care workers declined by 75.6%, while the number of dependents brought in by students dropped by almost 80%.
This development occurs in advance of the July 4 election, in which both major parties’ campaigns heavily center on immigration policy.
