The great migration myth

May 9, 2024 by Jill

by Emma Revell, CapX:

Throughout the 20th century, Britain was a country of net emigration and then one of low net immigration. But after 1997, the number of people arriving started to accelerate dramatically. And since the new immigration system came into effect in 2021, numbers have accelerated even further, to unprecedented levels.

While the public imagination is preoccupied with Channel crossings, legal inflows are over 25 times the level of illegal inflows: 1.2m versus 46,000 in 2022. Once you account for those also leaving the country, 3.7m people have been added to the UK population through net migration since 2010, more than the population of Wales. This compares to net migration of just 68,000 from 1973-1997. Between 2001 and 2021, the share of people in England and Wales born outside the UK increased from 9% to 17%.

If British living standards were rising as a result, this could be a good thing. However, as the Centre for Policy Studies argues in a paper launched today, large-scale migration has not delivered significant growth in GDP per capita, and has increased the strain on our capital stock, from roads and GP surgeries to housing.

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Read also: How to fix Britain’s migrant crisis – quickly by Karl Williams, Spectator