Immigration: Overseas Students
(asked on 18th January 2024) - View Source
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the (1) gross, and (2) net, migration figures for 2022 were dependents of foreign students.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt Hon. the Lord Tyrie
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
24 January 2024
Dear Lord Tyrie,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking what proportion of the (1) gross, and (2) net, migration figures for 2022 were foreign students (HL1764); and what proportion of the (1) gross, and (2) net, migration figures for 2022 were dependents of foreign students (HL1765).
Your questions can be answered by using data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). These data can be found in our year ending June 2023 edition of our Long-term international immigration, emigration and net migration flows, provisional dataset [1]. This includes data up to June 2023. Specifically, for long term migration [2] by reason, including study visas, please see table 3 of the aforementioned dataset. Please note that the estimates within the dataset are still provisional.
For the year ending December 2022, estimates for both students and dependants are available for non-EU migrants. We do not currently have comparable figures for EU and British nationals.
For the year ending December 2022, total immigration was 1,234,000, of which 1,030,000 were non-EU migrants.
For the year ending December 2022, 315,000 students immigrated long-term, 31% of all non-EU migrants. In addition, 93,000 student dependants immigrated long-term, 9% of all non-EU migrants.
For the year ending December 2022, total emigration of all nationalities was 489,000 and emigration of non-EU migrants was 157,000.
72,000 were non-EU migrants who initially arrived on a study visa leaving (46% of all non-EU emigrants) and a further 12,000 were non-EU migrants who initially arrived on a study dependant visa leaving (8%).
To calculate net migration for students and their dependents, we take the number of individuals who emigrated – who initially arrived in the UK on a study visa (or study-dependant visa) – away from the number of individuals who immigrated on a study visa (or study-dependant visa).
This comes with some caveats. It compares immigration to emigration within the same period, so the migrants counted are a summary of both past and current behaviours at a fixed point in time. Individuals counted as an emigrant in this method could have transitioned to a different visa type during their time in the UK. This means that this measure could present a distorted view of the true causes for migration, for example where someone studies and then works.
For the year ending December 2022, net migration of non-EU migrants was 873,000. 243,000 was net migration for study visas, 28% of all non-EU net migration and 82,000 were study dependants, 9% of all non-EU net migration.
Figures used to answer your questions in this response have been included in Table 1.
Table 1: Immigration, Emigration and Net Migration for year ending December 2022
Year ending Dec 2022 | All nationalities | All Non-EU migrants | Non-EU Students | Non-EU Student dependants |
Immigration | 1,234,000 | 1,030,000 | 315,000 | 93,000 |
Emigration | 489,000 | 157,000 | 72,000 | 12,000 |
Net migration | 745,000 | 873,000 | 243,000 | 82,000 |
The most up to date information is from year ending December 2023. This has been provided in Table 2 in case helpful.
Table 2: Immigration, Emigration and Net Migration for year ending June 2023
Year ending June 2023 | All nationalities | All Non-EU migrants | Non-EU Students | Non-EU Student dependants |
Immigration | 1,180,000 | 968,000 | 282,000 | 96,000 |
Emigration | 508,000 | 200,000 | 88,000 | 27,000 |
Net migration | 672,000 | 768,000 | 194,000 | 69,000 |
Because of the increases seen in the immigration of students in the recent time periods, we would expect emigration to continue to rise as those students come to the end of their studies. However, research in our Reason for international migration, international students update: November 2023 article [3] suggests that more recent cohorts of students are staying in the UK for longer. We will continue to monitor this trend to see how it evolves over time.
When accessing any of our files, you may find it helpful to read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
[2] We continue to use the UN definition of a long-term migrant: a person who moves to a country other than that of their usual residence for at least a year. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingjune2022#glossary