Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) assessment she has made and (b) research he has commissioned on the potential effect on UK export growth of the inclusion of foreign students in the Government's net migration target.

There is no cap on the number of foreign students who can come to the UK so there is no effect on UK export growth from their inclusion in the way the UK measures net migration.

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 are included. Other countries, such as 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 people coming to 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.