Net migration may have been a little lower than expected, but it is still much higher than the British government wants. For many years, successive Conservative governments aimed to receive a maximum of 100,000 additional immigrants per year. Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also believes the number is too high. Immigration was also an important topic during the Brexit referendum in 2016.
According to the opposition Labor Party, the government has neither a plan nor control over immigration. However, according to Immigration Secretary Robert Jenrick, the government remains committed to reducing net migration to “sustainable levels”. He also stressed that despite the “very high” figure for the full year, net migration began to stabilize in the second half of the year.
British employers want to see immigrants coming, because there is a great demand for workers and employees. In some sectors, more than 90 percent of applicants are reported to come from abroad. She says there is a severe shortage of specialist skills in the UK itself.
It is a major dilemma for the British government: reducing the number of immigrants at a time when there is a severe labor shortage. As parliamentary elections approach (perhaps in the fall of 2024), the connection between the two will certainly become an electoral issue.
