More and more Europeans are leaving Britain, but even more foreigners are coming to the country
As the BBC notes, these figures mean that net migration of EU citizens to Britain, i.e., the difference between inflow and outflow across the border, stood at 90,000 people. This is the lowest figure in five years.
The ONS says that Britain's plans to leave the European Union may have influenced people's decision to leave. Nicola White, head of international migration statistics at the ONS, says migration is a complex phenomenon that can depend on many different factors.
Among British citizens, the number of those wishing to emigrate also exceeds those who want to return from emigration to their homeland. Among EU citizens who moved to Britain, fewer have done so for work-related reasons (e.g., arriving to look for work).
Immigration from countries outside the European Union, on the other hand, is growing. This means that the UK population continues to increase at the same rate as before 2014. About 285,000 people from non-EU countries arrived in the UK in the 12 months to September 2017, and only 80,000 with non-European citizenship left. This gives a net increase of 205,000 immigrants – the highest in six years.
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw believes this is primarily due to an increase in the number of people coming to the UK to study, as well as a possible correction of last year's uncharacteristically low figures. The journalist suggests that another reason could be the difficulties British companies face in hiring EU citizens, forcing them to look for candidates outside the EU.
Overall, net migration is estimated to have fallen by 29,000 compared to the previous period, to 244,000 people. This figure also takes into account the migration of Britons – both the 73,000 who returned to the UK from abroad and the 125,000 who left.
The overall net migration figure still lags far behind the government's stated goal of reducing it to below 100,000. The Conservatives set such targets in 2010, 2015 and 2017.