Net migration from the EU continues to trend downwards and is now at its lowest level since 2012
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday released its latest quarterly migration statistics report. It can be read here.
According to the report, net migration in the year ending March 2018 was +270,000. Long-term immigration and long-term emigration were estimated at around 610,000 and 340,000 respectively.
Nicola Rogers of the ONS's Centre for Migration said: "[The] figures show that around 270,000 more people are coming to the UK than leaving, so net migration is continuing to add to the UK population. Net migration has been broadly stable since peak levels seen in 2015 and 2016."
The ONS found that net migration from the EU continued to trend downwards and was now at its lowest level since 2012. In the year ending March 2018, 226,000 EU citizens came to the UK while 138,000 left. EU net migration has now declined by over 100,000 since its peak in the year ending June 2016.
"Much of the recent fall is in people from the western European countries that make up the 'EU15' group coming to the UK for a definite job. Previously we had seen a decline in the number of EU citizens coming who were looking for work, however, this seems to have stabilised," Nicola Rogers explained.
The ONS report said that the latest statistics from the Labour Force Survey (for April to June 2018) showed that there were 2.28 million EU nationals working in the UK, 86,000 fewer than a year earlier and the largest annual fall since comparable records began in 1997.
Non-EU immigration the year ending March 2018 was estimated at 316,000, a similar level to that seen in 2011, following an overall increase since the year ending September 2015.