Inside Britain’s migration crisis: Charts show how surge in students, health workers – and their families – plus fallout from Ukraine and Hong Kong chaos has pushed up inflows

Ministers are facing mounting pressure to act after net migration hit a shocking new record of 745,000 in a year.

Rishi Sunak acknowledged today that the level is ‘too high’, with the PM having committed to bringing it back to the 2019 figure of around 230,000.    

But charts from the ONS and Home Office underline how hard it might be to achieve a reduction in numbers without choking off key public services and sectors of the economy.

Before Brexit, many workers for areas such as health, care and construction came from the EU under free movement rules. 

When that was replaced with a points-based system, decisions had to be taken on how generous the arrangements needed to be.

The strain on the labour market intensified due to Covid warping travel patterns and sending inflation skyrocketing.

Rishi Sunak admitted immigration is ‘too high’ today but dodged Tory calls for a crackdown on health workers bringing family members.

Speaking to broadcasters, Mr Sunak stressed that ‘tough’ action was already being taken so people coming to study undergraduate courses could not be accompanied dependants.

However, he stopped short of committing to any further steps. Instead he stressed there were signs numbers are reducing, and the government will consider if there is evidence of ‘abuse of the system’.  

Ministers are facing mounting pressure to act after net migration hit a shocking new record of 745,000 in a year. The rise since 2020 has been driven by arrivals from outside the EU

Humanitarian routes from Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan contributed to the sharp rise in numbers, although the effects have faded. Work routes and study routes have been the main drivers in the past two years

Studying and work dominate the reasons for non-EU citizens coming to the UK, while numbers of dependants has been rising  

In 2022 care workers and home carers became eligible for health visas, which now dominate the work visa route

This chart shows the countries of origin of those coming to the UK for health roles

 The number of dependants accompanying people on work visas has been rising sharply

The ONS has pointed to an uptick in emigration as a possible sign that net migration will come down

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