Net migration has decreased from 649,000 to 204,000 in the year to June 2025

They're fudging the figures to show how they're finally doing something and listening to the British public concerns. It's bs. High earners are emigrating and being replaced by deliveroo drivers, waiting staff and taxi drivers. Fabulous, just want the country needs! and the tired old trope that the nhs would collapse without immigration is of each successive governments making - increase the number of training places for newly qualified doctors and the problem would be solved, with no need to recruit foreign workers. Finally people are waking up to the propaganda that's been pushed upon us for decades. They really do think we're stupid.

You aren't the only one. I know a lot of higher income (low 6 figs) individuals and families ie the ones who pay highest level of income tax etc, who are actively looking to leave/already leaving.

I’m actively taking steps to emigrate because this country isn’t one I want my kids to grow up in anymore. The public sector is decimated, our once thriving city centre is a complete shithole and it feels like the whole country is full of small minded, isolationist racists. I’m trying to get out before it implodes, and we’re taking our tax payments with us.

I wonder if these figures include international students? I've read a couple of articles and haven't yet found that information.

The jobs ma be advertised but in reality they don't exist

No-one said single mothers did they? That's your twist.

According to some people we should stop low skilled people coming in to harvest crops and make single mothers on benefits do those jobs

The new immigration rules recently announced by Shabana Mahmood suggest extending time to get ILR from 5 years to 10 years for most, but reducing it to 3 years for high earners and keeping it at 5 for doctors and nurses.
So rules to attract the rich and high skilled are already in place.
It's another matter that few high earners will want to come here and give up most of their income in tax. And you can't stop people leaving.

I don't think it's a convenient fallacy at all- in fact to assume someone identifies as British because they were born a subject in a colonial regime is quite the leap. That aside, between 1997-2014, you had nearly 20 years where ethnically Chinese HK'ers cemented a HK specific identity as a semi-autonomous Chinese region- they got HK passports and the majority were very optimistic that HK would retain a high degree of autonomy from the mainland and saw a good future in that. They identified very strongly as different from mainland Chinese people, but at the same time their culture was and still is very Chinese-centric. They didnt move to the UK because they identified with the UK but because BNO passports gave them the option and they strongly identified against mainland integration. A lot also move to Canada.

This isn't an argument against HK migrants being allowed to come to UK btw (I'm in favour) but I think to say that HK Chinese identify as British is just incorrect. At best I'd say they have a cultural familiarisation that might facilitate integration.

EU vs non-EU is a bit of a stupid measure imo because "non-EU" includes America, Canada, Australia etc.

With that said there are patterns in migration between different countries and very significant variation in both economic contribution and cultural similarity, and an immigration system that's wilfully blind to these patterns is what's got us into this.

Oh my goodness. I saw your post before you edited it. Uggh...I hope you edited your post because you realised how racist it was but is this really what people think? Eu Immigration ok- Non eu immigration not ok?

That's right. Most of them are engineers, surgeons and scientists. Hurrah!

You are being unreasonable as it’s widely reported (but not by the Guardian) that the majority of those who are leaving are net contributors, high earners, workers etc - basically we are losing the people we want to be keeping and taking in people who are often high need in their place. This is not good.

I’m a British citizen, I’m skilled/educated and I emigrated in that period. Along with a few colleagues (also British citizens). Main reason is stagnant wages. Absolutely love the UK and plan to return, but I can’t spend my prime career-building years in a low-wage low-growth economy.

This shows the demographic of emigration. Highest amongst the young, because they simply don't see a future in UK.
Young people with skills and energy and talent are seeing no future in a country that is in managed decline.

We should all be incredibly worried about this!

The Telegraph had a piece yesterday (archive link) which had a data point I found interesting.

Note: by the time you have ILR you have been here at least 5 years and can legally work any job you want.

"Five years down the line, the tax revenues look a little less positive than we’d hoped for, and welfare spending is curiously higher. To put things into perspective, there are somewhere in the region of 759,000 people with ILR (but not citizenship) living in the UK, and around 211,000 of them claim universal credit. That’s a whole population claim rate in the region of 28 per cent, compared to 12 per cent for GB as a whole."

We struggle enough with the benefits bill as it is - if productive people are leaving and the people entering are claiming benefits at 2-3x the normal rate as soon as they get the chance, that's a massive problem. Even if they are helping with wage suppression in the NHS...

Anyone under 28 was born a British subject and I think it’s a convenient fallacy to suggest they didn't view themselves as British per se. They had a British governor, legal system, Queen on their currency, and many many ties with UK. Nothing to do with this thread really I just was wondering what the demographic of immigrants really was.

No, they are coming in to UK as low skilled.
UK doctors are emigrating because they can't get jobs!

Key word is net. There's bern a huge exodus of people leaving, generally wealthy high tax payers.

No that was kind of a one off. It's a trickle now. Although some older HK'ers were obviously born under British rule, they didn't view themselves as British per se - that was just their passport (British Dependent Territory- so not even considered a citizen but a subject). The 100K+ out migration in 2022 was really a case of "any port in a storm" due to the NSL and covid restrictions rather than them feeling a cultural affinity to the UK.

I am sure it will be shouted about, because the ONS are attributing it to restrictions introduced by the previous Conservative government 😂

But are they in low skilled occupations because they aren’t able to practice till certified here or because they were low skilled anyway? If you (for example) work in the nhs you will be very aware of just how many medical and support staff are immigrants. Not that we don’t need labour at every level just it isn’t clear to me what is happening. I remember headlines that deaths exceeded births for the first time a few years ago. I think it was about 20k. Presumably we need a larger number of immigrants and more children now because the indigenous population is getting older and the country will need workers to keep going?

I know so many young doctors who have left for NZ Aus due to the lack of training places. And my 22 year old son’s friends are all seeking graduate jobs (research / engineering / geoscience) in Europe. More opportunities, lower cost of living, better public services. If there’s no prospect of getting a roof over your head here through hard work, why stay?

It's not the achievement they think it is.

Net migration is both legal and illegal migration as well as how many people arrive and leave. Legal migration is much higher. Both types bring dependants over after spending some years siphoning money out of the system (innocently sending money back home) to their dependants while appealing to the Home Office to get them flown over to here.

We have plenty of narcissistic immigrants legal and not so legal who hate the sight of a St. George's Cross or Union flag and think that we should appreciate them for being here.

Perhaps net zero migration is what we should be aiming for; none in and all of the ones already here out.

As long as someone who arrives here does so legally and wants to integrate while also stipulating that they identify culturally a lot more with the flag of the country they've moved to, then I can accept that.

Yes, I expect a fair bit of flaming for this, but I'm too tired to care.

If we have UK citizens who currently aren't working then they should be mandated to do them. Just saying "no-one wants to do them" isn't acceptable when we have such a huge welfare bill that people who are working have to pay for.