Boris Johnson’s government has increased annual legal immigration to over a million for the first time in modern history, as illegal immigration in the Channel remains uncontrolled and deportations remain in freefall.
Prime Minister Johnson dropped the Conservative (Tory) Party’s longstanding — but never kept and never sincere — pledge to reduce net immigration “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands” ahead of the 2019 general election, but claimed there would still be some overall reduction in numbers, given Brexit made his premiership and Brexit supporters voted to Leave the European Union in large part because they believed it would lead to immigration cuts.
In fact, as the latest government estimates show, immigration is up more or less across the board — and the already extremely small number of deportations carried out by the state continues to decline.
Work-related visas, including dependants, increased to 277,069 in the year to March 2022 — a 129 per cent rise on the figures for the year to March 2021 and a 50 per cent rise on the figures for the year to March 2020.
Dependants are spouses, partners, children and the application is linked to that of the main applicant
They have near full access to UK labour market, can work in any skill level (no salary or skill test) and can engage in study.
No English test
Children get state education
— Migration Watch (@MigrationWatch) May 27, 2022
Sponsored study visas — for both applicants and their dependants — increased by 58 per cent to 466,611 over the same period, and a new graduate visa has been launched making it easier for such students, their partners, and children to stay in the country after graduation, possibly en route to permanent settlement.
Citizens of the communist-led People’s Republic of China accounted for a quarter of all sponsored study visas granted — some 116,967 — with the government also highlighting a massive 529 per cent in student visas granted to Nigerians, taking them to a record 58,887.
Visas and family permits granted “for family reasons” — aka chain migration — increased by 90 per cent to 301,830. This was attributed partly to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, but the figure is still an increase of 63 per cent when compared to that for the year to March 2020.
Numbers offered for migrants granted asylum, humanitarian protection, or similar forms of settlement were muddy, with the estimate offered “24 per cent lower than the year ending March 2020, but similar to levels seen from 2015 to 2018” but rendered meaningless by the fact that migrants resettled under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme and Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy have been excluded, pending the release of more information at a later date.
Overall, asylum applications — “main applicants only” — were revealed to have increased by 58 per cent to numbers “higher than at the peak of the European Migration crisis”.
In terms of visa extensions and permanent settlement, decisions on applications to extend a person’s stay in the country increased by 57 per cent to 401,963, and decisions on applications for settlement increased by 20 per cent to 111,760, with 99 per cent of the latter resulting in a grant.
196,085 foreigners were granted full British citizenship — an increase of 20 per cent.
Meanwhile, enforced deportations in 2021 declined to a paltry 2,761; down 18 per cent on the already low figure for 2020 and down 62 per cent on the figure for 2019.
Deportations of so-called Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) accounted for the majority of these (2,673 people), of whom 61 per cent were EU nationals.
This compares with the astonishing figure of 40,898 foreigners — excluding dual nationals — who were arrested just by London’s Metropolitan Police in 2020 alone, including 648 for rape, 765 for other sexual offences, and 83 for murder.
I’ve said before; this government has neither the will nor intention to control migration. Announcements on Rwanda etc are merely a smokescreen.
Controlling migration was the foremost reason most people voted for Brexit. They have been, and will continue to be, utterly betrayed https://t.co/iERgI030dA
— Peter Whittle (@prwhittle) May 26, 2022
Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said that the “astonishing figures” represented “a huge increase on the year prior to the pandemic and possibly points to the highest annual immigration ever seen.”
“Such a huge number of arrivals can only add to strains on housing and services, put further pressure on schools and the [National Health Service] and worsen our congestion woes,” Mehmet continued, adding: “Meanwhile, illegal immigration in boats is running at three times the rate of last year’s record inflow.”
Remarkably, the United Kingdom spent months of the period covered by these figures under what the state broadcaster the BBC calls “significant restrictions”, revealing the remarkable situation where Britons were locked down by their own government while the nation’s borders were open to a likely record-breaking number of newcomers.
Some notionally right-leaning figures, such as Spectator writer James Kirkup, attempted to spin the figures by pointing to polling which shows that Britons regard immigration as a less important issue than such pressing matters as inflation, defence, terrorism, and the possibly not unrelated issue of “faith in politicians”, arguing that this means voters are “quite content” about annual immigration in excess of one million people.
YouGov polling looking at immigration in isolation, however, finds that an overwhelming 72 per cent of Britons believe the government is handling immigration “badly” against just 16 per cent who believe it is being handled “well”.
More specifically, 51 per cent of Britons think immigration over the last 10 years has been “too high” — more than double the 22 per cent who think it has been “about right” and absolutely dwarfing the 11 per cent who think it has been “too low”.
Sentiment among Boris Johnson’s actual supporter base — Leave and Conservative Party voters — is even more obviously dissatisfied, with 80 per cent of Leavers and 77 per cent of Conservatives saying immigration has been too high compared to just 2 per cent and 3 per cent who say it has been too low.
“Public attitudes on immigration have to be considered in light of the constant barrage in favour of weak or open borders that people are subjected to via much of the media, corporate advertising, and government announcements,” noted Dr Ben Greening, the executive director of Migration Watch, in comments to Breitbart London.
“[E]ven in the midst of that, and a fast changing population, it is clear that most people think immigration has been too high, and about two-thirds want tougher action to prevent illegal arrivals,” he added.
“The sensible majority want immediate steps taken to restore sanity and control.”
‘Red Wall’ Conservative MPs Warn Govt ‘Drastic Increase’ in Immigration Breaks Promises to Voters https://t.co/0gH6l2smBG
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 23, 2022
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