The backfire?: Why despite Brexit and other measures the United Kingdom receives a record number of migrants

Immigration has been for years one of the most contentious issues in the politics of the United Kingdom. These days, the pressure on the conservative government has increased with the publication of new figures that reveal that, despite their efforts, a record number of migrants entered the country in 2022.

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Net migration to the UK has risen from 488,000 in 2021 to 606,000 in 2022, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has announced. The new figure is almost double the level of 2018, reports the newspaper “The Guardian”.

Another important record: of the immigrants who arrived in 2022, more than 45,000 people did so irregularly. As for more recent data, it is estimated that more than 5,000 migrants have crossed the waters of the English Channel, from France to England, so far in 2023.

“The numbers are too high, it’s as simple as that. And I want to bring them down,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in power since October last year and who has promised more measures to control immigration.

For this reason, the British Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has reaffirmed that one of the main objectives of the government is to reduce the number of both legal and undocumented immigrants.

Migrants, picked up at sea while trying to cross the English Channel, are helped by a member of the UK Border Force. (Photo: AFP) (DANIEL LEAL/)

The minister stated in April that people who enter the UK illegally after crossing the English Channel aboard small boats “have values ​​that are at odds with our country” as well as “high levels of crime”. She mentioned “drug trafficking, exploitation and prostitution”.

“We have people here who come here illegally. That in itself is criminal behavior and that is why we are establishing our new framework on illegal migration,” he said.

Stopping the boats is my top priority and is one of the five promises Prime Minister @RishiSunak has made to the British people.

That is why today I have announced the new Illegal Migration Bill. pic.twitter.com/0yylDPt5JT

— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) March 7, 2023

THE WEIGHT OF BREXIT

The pressure on the government is not free. The Conservative Party vehemently promised in the 2019 elections – when the immigration situation was already critical – that net migration would decline during the term of the current Parliament, but failure to meet that goal is already inevitable.

An important factor in the debate is that the last Conservative governments promised that after Brexit they could “regain control” of the borders of the United Kingdom, but, although the divorce from the European Union materialized in 2016, immigration levels have not stop increasing.

Prime Minister Sunak, the son of Indian parents who moved to the UK from East Africa, is between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, he tries to keep his party’s promises and, on the other, he must meet the demands of the economy and the public sector to allow more migrants, paradoxically, also because of Brexit, which has caused a change in the labor force that arrives in the UK.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. (Photo: AFP) (Kin Cheung / POOL / AFP /)

Faced with this situation, the Prime Minister highlighted the measures announced this week to limit family reunification by international students. These are actions “more effective than anything previously announced in the fight against immigration,” he said.

Starting in January, only postgraduate researchers will be able to bring dependent family members with them. In addition, foreign students will not be able to change from a student visa to a work visa before completing their training.

VERY COMPLEX PROBLEM

According to the ONS, the arrivals of people from outside the European Union included 361,000 students and their families, 235,000 people who came for work-related reasons, 172,000 who came on humanitarian plans from countries such as Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan, and 76,000 people applying for asylum.

However, Rodrigo Murillo, historian and international analyst expert in Europe, He considers that migration from the Ukraine or Hong Kong is not the one that makes the British’s hair stand on end, with a tough stance towards immigration.

“Ukrainian and Hong Kong migration is, for better or worse, Western. The problem that Europeans have is with migration that is not incorporated, that is not assimilated. There is a migration of people who enter France, England and other countries and who have no interest in speaking the language or joining the culture and, at the same time, many do not stop until they bring more relatives. That is why it is such a powerful migration and that the Europeans have the idea that they cannot control it, ”he tells El Comercio.

Migrants are escorted ashore from the UK Border Force ship ‘BF Ranger’ in Dover, southeast England. (Photo: AFP) (BEN STANSALL/)

He explains that many of those who are opposed to immigration complain because in countries like France, Germany and England they do not have the private offer of services that there is in Peru. “In Europe, the best, for decades, has been the public, the free, to which everyone had access because they take half of your salary to pay for these services. Now what happens is that this tremendous amount of people has arrived and the services have not increased”, says the expert.

He adds that the problem is difficult to solve politically because the English judicial system itself has peculiarities that prevent harsh measures to curb immigration.

One example is that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson reached an agreement with Rwanda to send certain asylum seekers there, a measure defended by the Interior Minister. However, the plan is paralyzed pending decisions by the courts, before which several NGOs defending immigrants appealed.

In the midst of the debate, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, criticized the growing discrimination against refugees, asylum seekers and other groups in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom or Italy, “frequently accompanied by laws that go against migrants.

“This situation is developing in countries like the UK, the US, Italy, Greece or Lebanon, and it is particularly worrying that some laws appear designed to limit people’s ability to apply for asylum and other forms of protection. ”, concluded the UN official.

Source: Elcomercio