Figures released last week show that EU to UK immigration is down to its lowest level for four years.
The latest Office of National Statistics data shows that there were 101,000 net migrants from the EU last year.
The first full-year data released regarding immigration since the Brexit vote also revealed that there was also a record number of European Union citizens emigrating from the UK, with an estimated 139,000 leaving.
Net migration from the eight eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 – Poland, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia and Latvia – fell from 42,000 in the year before the referendum to 6,000 in 2017.
Meanwhile, net migration from the 14 longer-term member states such as Germany, Italy, Spain and France, has almost halved since the vote. Numbers fell from 84,000 in the 12 months to June 2016 to 46,000 last year.
The figures also reveal that the number of European citizens coming to the UK ‘looking for work’ decreased by 33 per cent from 55,000 in 2016 to 37,000 in the last year. Meanwhile, those coming to the UK for a definite job remained stable, the figures showed.
However, while the number of EU citizens arriving in the UK may be down, there was a large rise in the number of people arriving from outside the EU, taking overall net migration to its highest level since 2011 – 282,000.
Article published 23rd July 2018