141,000 Nigerians to move to UK between June 2022 and June 2023
A total of 141,000 Nigerians moved to the UK in the year between June 2022 and June 2023, according to the latest figures released by British authorities.
Nigeria’s unstable academic calendar, characterized by frequent and prolonged university strikes, economic hardship and insecurity, has forced thousands of people to “japa” (a Yoruba word meaning “flee”). It was done.
“In the year to June 2023, the top five non-EU nationalities bringing in migrants to the UK were Indians (253,000), Nigerians (141,000) and Chinese (89,000). , Pakistanis (55,000) and Ukrainians (35,000),” the secretariat said. The Office for National Statistics announced on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, the UK government announced changes to immigration laws aimed at reducing rapidly increasing net immigration.
The new policy, which will take effect from January next year, includes a ban on foreign students attending non-research graduate courses being accompanied by their families.
The restrictions could force many Nigerians looking to move to the UK with their families to look elsewhere.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced earlier this year that the number of Nigerians studying in the UK has increased from 6,798 in 2017 to 59,053 as of December 2022.
As these numbers increased, so did the number of dependents. In 2019 she had 1,586, while last year she had 60,923.
The ONS says non-EU figures are based on Home Office Borders and Immigration data, while EU figures are based on Registration and Population Exchange Database (RAPID) data received from the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs. , added that the figures were based on British nationals. About the International Passenger Survey (IPS).
It further stated that the preliminary estimate for the total number of long-term migrants for the year ending June 2023 (YE) is 1.2 million, with 508,000 immigrants.
This simply means that net immigration was 672,000 people. Most of those arriving in the UK in June 2023 were non-EU nationals (968,000), followed by EU (129,000) and British nationals (84,000).
According to the ONS, net migration in June 2023 was 672,000 people, a slight increase compared to annual net migration in June 2022 (607,000 people), but the latest estimates for December 2022 ( 745,000 people).
The report said it was too early to tell whether this was the beginning of a new downward trend, and that these more recent estimates showed a slowdown in immigration coupled with an increase in immigration.
“Methods for measuring international migration are under development and these timely estimates for the years ending June 2023 and December 2022 are preliminary and are not informed by past behavior. supported by assumptions,” the ONS explained.
“This means that the uncertainty associated with these estimates will be reduced in the next release, when we have more data to confirm people’s long-term migration status.”
Source: guardian.ng