Immigration and Emigration

Brexit is a subject of great interest nowadays and so is the collateral situation of the immigrants who are coming to the UK. By being a part of the EU, opens borders for other EU citizens to come across without any issue. However, do British citizens truly appreciate their easy means of being able to travel to the EU right now?

Last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, there were more emigrants than immigrants in UK’s recent records. During the past year, around 323,000 people emigrated from the UK. While the highest number of emigrants was in 2008, with a whooping 427,000 emigrants. However, each year after has seen a slightly lower number of emigrants than that. 

Most of those who leave England are British-citizens, while some of them are Europeans who return to their home countries or go elsewhere. So, if Britain leaves the EU, the possibility of British-citizens being able travel will also inadvertently be affected. However, in 2014 about 91,000 Europeans left the UK. Besides that statistic, around 94,000 other emigrants were non-European. However, the number of non-Europeans leaving the UK has decreased thereafter and according to the statistics people from India, who are living in the UK are less likely to leave again. 

Most people, who migrated to other countries, aim to find better jobs and earn more money. However, this mean those 33,000 emigrants were returning home each year. About 30,000 people, who leave UK, join their relatives who are living in other countries. Therefore, some of the Europeans who come to the UK for work sometimes return to their home countries right after. 

Another reason why people migrate from UK is because they have finished their studies. As British universities, are considered one of the best in the world, a lot of young people come to the UK to study. They then return to their home countries after they finish their studies. So annually about 30,000 graduates leave UK. It is very advantageous for British Universities to have students from abroad, who pay for their courses, accommodation and other expenses.

Statistics have shown that most of those who leave UK go to live in Australia, Spain, the United States or even France. This could also mean that citizens of UK take their opportunity to travel within the EU for granted. Therefore, British citizens should certainly consider travelling to EU as much as possible, before they decide to leave the EU.