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Written Question
Immigration
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Reid of Cardowan (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of immigration on (1) public services, (2) housing, and (3) infrastructure.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government has been clear that net migration is too high and is determined to bring it down to sustainable levels to help protect public services and housing against unsustainable pressure.

In May 2023, the Government announced measures to restrict the number of overseas students able to bring dependants. On 4 December 2023, the Home Secretary announced a new package of measures to reduce net migration further. These include limitations on family dependants being brought in by care workers and senior care workers; increasing the salary threshold for the Skilled Worker route; commissioning the Migration Advisory Committee to review the Shortage Occupation List; and raising the minimum income requirement for Family visas progressively over the next few years. These measures are now being implemented and were the subject of a WMS by the Minister for Legal Migration and the Border on January 30th.

Taken together with the measures the Government announced in May 2023, this means that around 300,000 people who were eligible to come to the UK last year would not be able to do so in future.

We keep all our immigration policies under review and work closely with key government departments to ensure that the immigration system best serves the UK, reflects the public’s priorities and protects public services against undue pressure.

A full analysis of the impact of the package will be published in a regulatory impact assessment in due course.


Written Question
Palestinians: Refugees
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to provide safe and legal entry routes for people in Gaza seeking to join family members in the UK.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The UK Government is monitoring the situation in Israel and Gaza closely to ensure that it is able to respond appropriately.

British citizens and those with settled status in the UK, together with their foreign national dependants, may come to the UK provided that they have valid travel documents and existing permission to enter or remain in the UK; or are non-visa nationals. They must also pass appropriate security checks.

The Government allows individuals with protection status in the UK to sponsor their partner or children to stay with, or join, them here through our refugee family reunion policy, provided they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country of origin to seek protection.

There are additional safe and legal routes for people to come to the UK should they wish to join family members here, work, or study. They would need to meet the requirements of the relevant Immigration Rule under which they were applying to qualify for a visa.

The Home Office has not considered establishing a separate resettlement route for Palestinians to come to the UK. Since 2015, over half a million people have been offered safe and legal routes into the UK. Our approach is considered in the round, rather than on a crisis-by-crisis basis.

UK Visas and Immigration is working closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in supporting family members of British nationals evacuated from Gaza who require a visa, signposting the necessary steps and expediting appointments at the Visa Application Centre.


Written Question
Visas: Robert Gordon University
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential economic impact on Robert Gordon University of the restrictions to student visa routes implemented on 1 January 2024.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Government will continue to strike the balance between reducing overall net migration, protecting the economic benefits that overseas students bring to the UK and ensuring that businesses have the skills they need. Those affected by changes made to the Student visa will predominantly be dependants of students who make a more limited contribution to the economy than students or those on work visas, minimising the impact on UK growth.

We have been successful in delivering our International Education Strategy goal of hosting 600,000 students per year by 2030, earlier than planned, and expect universities to be able to adapt to reduced dependant numbers.


Written Question
Visas: University of Aberdeen
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential economic impact on the University of Aberdeen of the restrictions to student visa routes implemented on 1 January 2024.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Government will continue to strike the balance between reducing overall net migration, protecting the economic benefits that overseas students bring to the UK and ensuring that businesses have the skills they need. Those affected by changes made to the Student visa will predominantly be dependants of students who make a more limited contribution to the economy than students or those on work visas, minimising the impact on UK growth.

We have been successful in delivering our International Education Strategy goal of hosting 600,000 students per year by 2030, earlier than planned, and expect universities to be able to adapt to reduced dependant numbers.


Written Question
Visas: Aberdeen
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential economic impact on Aberdeen City of the restrictions to student visa routes implemented on t January 2024.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Government will continue to strike the balance between reducing overall net migration, protecting the economic benefits that overseas students bring to the UK and ensuring that businesses have the skills they need. Those affected by changes made to the Student visa will predominantly be dependants of students who make a more limited contribution to the economy than students or those on work visas, minimising the impact on UK growth.

We have been successful in delivering our International Education Strategy goal of hosting 600,000 students per year by 2030, earlier than planned, and expect universities to be able to adapt to reduced dependant numbers.


Written Question
Visas: Overseas Students
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the proportion of those issued student visas in (1) 2018, (2) 2019, (3) 2020, (4) 2021, (5) 2022, and (6) 2023, who (a) remain in the UK today, and (b) are expected to remain in the UK five years after their visa was first issued.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office publishes data on how people move through the immigration system in the Migrant Journey report. The report contains information on the number of people starting a journey each year broken down by immigration route (e.g. study) and applicant type (e.g. dependant), and how long they continued to hold leave to remain in the UK. The latest report covers up to the end of 2022 and shows that for those who started their journey on a Study visa in 2017, 20% of main applicants and 26% of dependants held valid leave five years later. The report looks at periods when people held valid leave which does not necessarily mean they were in the UK.


Written Question
Visas: Overseas Students
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the proportion of adult dependents of those on student visas who are in work.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Impact Assessment for the EU Withdrawal Bill estimated that of those non-EEA migrants that arrived in or after 2013 and who came to accompany and join, 41% were in employment.

The Home Office continues to review the evidence around employment of dependants.


Written Question
Immigration: Overseas Students
Thursday 1st February 2024

Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the (1) gross, and (2) net, migration figures for 2022 were foreign students.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Tyrie

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

24 January 2024

Dear Lord Tyrie,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking what proportion of the (1) gross, and (2) net, migration figures for 2022 were foreign students (HL1764); and what proportion of the (1) gross, and (2) net, migration figures for 2022 were dependents of foreign students (HL1765).

Your questions can be answered by using data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). These data can be found in our year ending June 2023 edition of our Long-term international immigration, emigration and net migration flows, provisional dataset [1]. This includes data up to June 2023. Specifically, for long term migration [2] by reason, including study visas, please see table 3 of the aforementioned dataset. Please note that the estimates within the dataset are still provisional.

For the year ending December 2022, estimates for both students and dependants are available for non-EU migrants. We do not currently have comparable figures for EU and British nationals.

For the year ending December 2022, total immigration was 1,234,000, of which 1,030,000 were non-EU migrants.

For the year ending December 2022, 315,000 students immigrated long-term, 31% of all non-EU migrants. In addition, 93,000 student dependants immigrated long-term, 9% of all non-EU migrants.

For the year ending December 2022, total emigration of all nationalities was 489,000 and emigration of non-EU migrants was 157,000.

72,000 were non-EU migrants who initially arrived on a study visa leaving (46% of all non-EU emigrants) and a further 12,000 were non-EU migrants who initially arrived on a study dependant visa leaving (8%).

To calculate net migration for students and their dependents, we take the number of individuals who emigrated – who initially arrived in the UK on a study visa (or study-dependant visa) – away from the number of individuals who immigrated on a study visa (or study-dependant visa).

This comes with some caveats. It compares immigration to emigration within the same period, so the migrants counted are a summary of both past and current behaviours at a fixed point in time. Individuals counted as an emigrant in this method could have transitioned to a different visa type during their time in the UK. This means that this measure could present a distorted view of the true causes for migration, for example where someone studies and then works.

For the year ending December 2022, net migration of non-EU migrants was 873,000. 243,000 was net migration for study visas, 28% of all non-EU net migration and 82,000 were study dependants, 9% of all non-EU net migration.

Figures used to answer your questions in this response have been included in Table 1.

Table 1: Immigration, Emigration and Net Migration for year ending December 2022

Year ending Dec 2022

All nationalities

All Non-EU migrants

Non-EU Students

Non-EU Student dependants

Immigration

1,234,000

1,030,000

315,000

93,000

Emigration

489,000

157,000

72,000

12,000

Net migration

745,000

873,000

243,000

82,000

The most up to date information is from year ending December 2023. This has been provided in Table 2 in case helpful.

Table 2: Immigration, Emigration and Net Migration for year ending June 2023

Year ending June 2023

All nationalities

All Non-EU migrants

Non-EU Students

Non-EU Student dependants

Immigration

1,180,000

968,000

282,000

96,000

Emigration

508,000

200,000

88,000

27,000

Net migration

672,000

768,000

194,000

69,000

Because of the increases seen in the immigration of students in the recent time periods, we would expect emigration to continue to rise as those students come to the end of their studies. However, research in our Reason for international migration, international students update: November 2023 article [3] suggests that more recent cohorts of students are staying in the UK for longer. We will continue to monitor this trend to see how it evolves over time.

When accessing any of our files, you may find it helpful to read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/datasets/longterminternationalimmigrationemigrationandnetmigrationflowsprovisional

[2] We continue to use the UN definition of a long-term migrant: a person who moves to a country other than that of their usual residence for at least a year. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingjune2022#glossary

[3] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/articles/reasonforinternationalmigrationinternationalstudentsupdate/november2023


Written Question
Immigration: Overseas Students
Thursday 1st February 2024

Asked by: Lord Tyrie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the (1) gross, and (2) net, migration figures for 2022 were dependents of foreign students.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Tyrie

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

24 January 2024

Dear Lord Tyrie,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking what proportion of the (1) gross, and (2) net, migration figures for 2022 were foreign students (HL1764); and what proportion of the (1) gross, and (2) net, migration figures for 2022 were dependents of foreign students (HL1765).

Your questions can be answered by using data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). These data can be found in our year ending June 2023 edition of our Long-term international immigration, emigration and net migration flows, provisional dataset [1]. This includes data up to June 2023. Specifically, for long term migration [2] by reason, including study visas, please see table 3 of the aforementioned dataset. Please note that the estimates within the dataset are still provisional.

For the year ending December 2022, estimates for both students and dependants are available for non-EU migrants. We do not currently have comparable figures for EU and British nationals.

For the year ending December 2022, total immigration was 1,234,000, of which 1,030,000 were non-EU migrants.

For the year ending December 2022, 315,000 students immigrated long-term, 31% of all non-EU migrants. In addition, 93,000 student dependants immigrated long-term, 9% of all non-EU migrants.

For the year ending December 2022, total emigration of all nationalities was 489,000 and emigration of non-EU migrants was 157,000.

72,000 were non-EU migrants who initially arrived on a study visa leaving (46% of all non-EU emigrants) and a further 12,000 were non-EU migrants who initially arrived on a study dependant visa leaving (8%).

To calculate net migration for students and their dependents, we take the number of individuals who emigrated – who initially arrived in the UK on a study visa (or study-dependant visa) – away from the number of individuals who immigrated on a study visa (or study-dependant visa).

This comes with some caveats. It compares immigration to emigration within the same period, so the migrants counted are a summary of both past and current behaviours at a fixed point in time. Individuals counted as an emigrant in this method could have transitioned to a different visa type during their time in the UK. This means that this measure could present a distorted view of the true causes for migration, for example where someone studies and then works.

For the year ending December 2022, net migration of non-EU migrants was 873,000. 243,000 was net migration for study visas, 28% of all non-EU net migration and 82,000 were study dependants, 9% of all non-EU net migration.

Figures used to answer your questions in this response have been included in Table 1.

Table 1: Immigration, Emigration and Net Migration for year ending December 2022

Year ending Dec 2022

All nationalities

All Non-EU migrants

Non-EU Students

Non-EU Student dependants

Immigration

1,234,000

1,030,000

315,000

93,000

Emigration

489,000

157,000

72,000

12,000

Net migration

745,000

873,000

243,000

82,000

The most up to date information is from year ending December 2023. This has been provided in Table 2 in case helpful.

Table 2: Immigration, Emigration and Net Migration for year ending June 2023

Year ending June 2023

All nationalities

All Non-EU migrants

Non-EU Students

Non-EU Student dependants

Immigration

1,180,000

968,000

282,000

96,000

Emigration

508,000

200,000

88,000

27,000

Net migration

672,000

768,000

194,000

69,000

Because of the increases seen in the immigration of students in the recent time periods, we would expect emigration to continue to rise as those students come to the end of their studies. However, research in our Reason for international migration, international students update: November 2023 article [3] suggests that more recent cohorts of students are staying in the UK for longer. We will continue to monitor this trend to see how it evolves over time.

When accessing any of our files, you may find it helpful to read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/datasets/longterminternationalimmigrationemigrationandnetmigrationflowsprovisional

[2] We continue to use the UN definition of a long-term migrant: a person who moves to a country other than that of their usual residence for at least a year. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingjune2022#glossary

[3] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/articles/reasonforinternationalmigrationinternationalstudentsupdate/november2023


Written Question
Overseas Students: Visas
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to visas for international students and their dependents on the finances of universities.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The government has been successful in delivering the ambition in its International Education Strategy of hosting at least 600,000 students per year, by 2030, for two years running. The department expects that universities will adapt to reduced dependant numbers following the restrictions the government has introduced to control net migration.

The department’s offer to international students remains very competitive and the department is committed to ensuring the UK remains a destination of choice for international students from across the globe. International students make a significant economic and cultural contribution to the UK’s higher education (HE) sector, which is good for our universities and delivers growth at home. Those affected by these changes will predominantly be dependants of international students. Students coming to the UK to undertake postgraduate research courses will not be affected by the new restriction on dependents.

The Office for Students (OfS), as the regulator for HE in England, has responsibility for monitoring the financial sustainability of registered providers. The department works closely with the OfS to understand the ongoing impacts and changing landscape of financial sustainability in the sector.