Immigration Solicitors

Latest figures on net migration show another increase in the number of those coming to the UK compared with the number of those leaving.

Net migration has in fact doubled since the coalition government came to power in 2010. The Conservative Party pledged to cut net migration to below 100,000 per year.

However, net migration has continued to increase and now stands at 298,000 – equal to a city the size of Hull.

The Conservatives have blamed migration from the EU for the increase – Tory Party Chairman Grant Shapps said that because the UK had produced more jobs as a result of a successful economy, migrants from less successful EU countries were moving to the UK seeking employment.

Mr Shapps conceded that increasing net migration resulted in more pressure on services in the UK, but added most of the jobs being created in the UK were going to UK nationals.

Home Office Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said that net migration had been “blown off course” by migration from within the EU – which he said had more than doubled since 2010.

Labour Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC News that the Conservative Party “had been wrong” to focus on net migration – and should have strengthened border controls to tackle illegal immigration “where enforcement has got worse”.

“Theresa May's obsession with the target has led her to target valuable university students – who bring billions into Britain – while doing nothing to make the labour market fairer for local workers, preventing undercutting by exploitative employers, or putting in place proper border controls so we can count people in and out to enforce the rules,” she said.

Senior Tory Lord Heseltine has called for overseas students to be excluded from net migration figures because of the economic benefits they bring to the UK.

Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has also said in the past that the City of London and the NHS would “fall over” without immigration.

UKIP MEP Steven Woolfe has called for an Australian-style points system for work visas with a 50,000 cap “for those who have the right to work, with the option for permanent residence here”.

Mr Woolfe told the BBC’s Daily Politics show that the party’s immigration cap would not affect students coming to the UK to study, however – and those seeking asylum in the UK or taking up short-term fixed work contracts would also be excluded from the cap.

The EU is based on the principle of freedom of movement, however – director of Oxford University's Migration Observatory, Madeleine Sumption, said:

“If the UK's economic performance compared to the rest of the EU had been poor, then we might well have seen net migration fall – but that has not happened.”

Duncan Lewis Immigration Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is one of the UK’s leading Legal Aid immigration solicitors and can advise on a wide range of immigration matters, including right to work in the UK and student visas.

Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors can also advise on:

• Asylum in the UK and asylum appeals
• Fast-track detention process
• Five-year work permits
• Human Rights Act
• Illegal entry to the UK
• Marriage in the UK
• Visa overstays.

For expert legal advice on UK immigration law, call Duncan Lewis immigration solicitors on 020 7923 4020.