Inflow of migrants to Britain fell to a two-year low
However, as BBC notes, the number of incoming migrants is still much higher than planned by the government, which promised to reduce the inflow to one hundred thousand people per year.
The number of people entering Britain for a long-term stay is estimated at 596,000, of which 268,000 are EU citizens, 257,000 from other countries, and 71,000 are British citizens. For work or to look for work, 294,000 migrants came to the country, roughly half of all arrivals.
Among EU citizens, the highest ever number of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens entered Britain: 74,000 people, that is almost a third of all arrivals from the European Union.
Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill recently said that the government will take measures to reduce the number of people entering the country. According to him, the government aims to reduce net migration to tens of thousands.
About 323,000 people are estimated to have left the UK, 26,000 more than in September 2015. Of those who left, 128,000 were British citizens, 103,000 were EU citizens, and 93,000 were citizens of other states.
These are the first statistics to include migration figures after the June referendum on Britain's exit from the EU. According to a representative of the National Bureau of Statistics, it is still too early to say what effect the referendum will have on migration in the long term.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd agrees that the government is still far from achieving its net migration target, but said the published figures showed that 'we can reduce immigration where we can control it.' The minister disagrees that the increase in migrants returning home (for example, to countries such as Poland) reflects uncertainty among EU citizens living in the UK about their future.
At the same time, separate Home Office data show that in 2016, a near-record number of EU citizens were granted British citizenship. Almost 17,000 EU citizens received it. Also in 2016, nearly 6,500 citizens of 'old EU countries' such as France, Spain and Germany received British citizenship, 50 percent more than in the previous 12 months and an all-time high for one year.
Almost 7,000 people who received citizenship last year came from Eastern European EU countries. This is 18% more than a year earlier and also near a record, comparable only to 2013 figures. More than 3,000 Romanian and Bulgarian citizens also received British passports, 20% more than in 2015.
Other statistics:
• the number of people coming to Britain from eight Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 decreased;
• migration from the UK of citizens of these countries has increased since September 2015 and reached its highest level in five years;
• the number of citizens from Africa, North and South America and Oceania leaving Britain also increased significantly;
• a third fewer students came to Britain compared to 2015 (134,000), with the main reduction coming from non-EU citizens;
• of the nearly 300,000 people who came to Britain to work, 180,000 were EU citizens. 190,000 of the labor migrants had a specific job offer;
• just over 100,000 people came to the country looking for work, 15% fewer than the previous year;
• for the first time since 2010, the number of asylum seekers also fell (to 38,500), though the reduction is not very large, just a few percent.