Our guest writer is Maria Latorre, ippr
The latest ippr report on re-migration argues that the unbalanced debate of migration in the UK, focusing almost entirely on inflows, has resulted in the Government feeling under pressure to continue tightening the migration processes. There is a risk that this could be against the UK’s longer term economic interests particularly the need to attract migrants with high-level skills or skills that are in short supply.
Recent data published by the Office for National Statistics, and reproduced below, show that the number of non-British citizens emigrating rose by nearly 30 per cent in the year ending September 2008. The number of migrants re-migrating from the UK peaked in 2008. As the table below shows, net migration has now fallen to its lowest level since spring 2004 (i.e. before the EU expansion to 25 members states including Poland and Hungary).
The report also says that we need to be making migrants feel more welcome in this country and take into account that young and better qualified migrants tend to leave after relatively short stays.
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