Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what his policy is on excluding foreign university students from net immigration targets.

Net migration statistics are produced by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS). In line with the internationally agreed UN definition, these statistics define a migrant as someone changing their normal place of residence for more than a year. This includes students in net migration in the same way as other migrants. Other countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand also include students in their net migration figures.

Net migration measures the difference between the number of peoplecoming the UK and the number leaving, so if students return home after
their studies, their impact on long-term net migration will be minimal. The ONS has recently improved its methodology so that it is possible to
better identify students in the emigration flows to give a more accurate measure of the contribution of students to overall net migration.In the last year, 124,000 non-EU students came to Britain to stay for more than 12 months, and the ONS estimates that only 50,000 left the country.

All migrants who are in the UK for 12 months or more have an impact on our communities, infrastructure and public services. Changing the way we measure migration would not make any difference to our student migration policy. There is no cap on the number of students who can come to the UK, and the county remains open to the brightest and the best.