UK immigration will stay high, says think tank

A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), warns that EU citizens, whose movement the Government cannot control, could arrive in Britain in increasingly large numbers to look for jobs in the coming year.

Particularly, Irish nationals are expected to be among the biggest arrivals as the economic situation in Ireland worsens.
 
David Cameron promised to bring net migration down to the "tens of thousands" by 2015, but the new changes to reduce UK Immigration will take time to have an impact.

The Government has announced a permanent UK Visa  cap of 21,700 for non-EU workers will be introduced in 2011 and is consulting on plans that will cut the number of foreign students by up to 100,000 a year.

The report warns that as a result there is little chance that net migration, the difference between those arriving and those leaving, will drop much below 200,000 in 2011.

Indeed, figures last month showed next migration was 215,000 in last year – showing migration numbers had actually risen not fallen.

The report said the Government was a "long way" from its overall objective, adding: "Reducing net migration by more than half would be a challenging task for any government, at any time, but it is made harder in the UK by the fact that government has no (or limited) control over some major immigration flows."

It concluded: "Despite the government's efforts, net immigration to the UK looks unlikely to fall significantly in 2011.

"If the UK economy continues to recover, we might even expect to see increases in some forms of immigration for work, despite the cap."  

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The UK Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people with their  UK Visa applications to the British Embassy.