UK net migration drops by about two-thirds after tougher policies

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LONDON (Reuters) -Long-term net migration to Britain fell to 204,000 in the year to June, around two-thirds lower than a year earlier, official data showed on Thursday, extending a downward trend driven by tougher government policies.

Immigration – both legal and illegal – has dominated political discourse in Britain for over a decade, with successive governments seeking to curb arrivals through stricter visa rules and higher salary thresholds.

The Labour government is tightening policies further to counter Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party, which campaigns on an anti-migration platform and holds a double-digit lead in opinion polls.

Revised data from the Office for National Statistics last week showed that net immigration peaked earlier and at a higher level than previously thought – 944,000 in the 12 months to March 2023.

Last week’s revised figures showed that numbers had fallen to 345,000 in 2024.

Despite the drop, the public still viewed immigration as the country’s main issue, with the British Future think tank noting that public concern was being driven primarily by those arriving via small boats from France seeking asylum.

“Those who most want lower immigration are the least aware of the falling numbers and the most likely to mistakenly believe net migration had increased,” it said.

This month the government announced sweeping reforms, including making refugee status temporary, speeding up deportation of those arriving illegally, and doubling the qualifying period for some foreign workers to obtain settled status to ten years.

A policy scrapping the care worker route, the single biggest driver of work migration in recent years, took effect in July and is expected to further reduce numbers in the coming years.

(Reporting by Muvija M; Editing by Andrew MacAskill)