Key Factors In Reducing U.K. Net Migration Examined

Ramping up the training of doctors and nurses are the best ways to address the country’s dependence on net migration.

The large pool of sick Britons who are unable to work are contributing to near-record levels of net migration in the United Kingdom, the government’s top advisor on the issue has said.

Employers are hiring more foreigners because many Britons are leaving the workforce due to ill-health, Professor Brian Bell, the chair of the Migration Advisory Committee told The Telegraph 24th November.

“If you have people who are not in the labour market, that shrinks the pool that you can recruit from. That causes a problem and leads to immigration on the work route,” The Telegraph quoted Bell as saying in an interview. Tackling the rise in sickness “will ease the pressure on the immigration system,” Bell said.

The Migration Advisory Committee is an independent body sponsored by the Home Office that advises the government on migration issues and works across the U.K.

Bell, a professor at King’s College London, spent the first 12 years of his career working for hedge funds and will advise the Home Office full-time from January, according to The Telegraph. His remarks come as some 2.8 million Britons of working age are out of work as a result of ill health, up by a third since before Covid and close to a record high.

“If you want to get net migration down, you have to deal with the health and care sector,” Professor Bell told The Telegraph.

Net migration, the number of people coming to the U.K. to live for the long-term minus those emigrating, climbed to a record 764,000 in 2022, about three times the annual average before the pandemic. Net migration fell 10 percent in 2023 to 685,000, the Office of National Statistics has said, but was still well above pre-pandemic levels.

But even though the rise in long-term sickness was feeding higher migration, getting more people off health-related benefits may not have a major effect on the overall net migration figures, Professor Bell said according to The Telegraph.

Many of those coming off benefits may not be suited to fill roles in sectors that are highly dependent on overseas workers – such as care, healthcare and information technology, according to Bell.

Overhauling funding for the university and care sectors and ramping up the training of doctors and nurses are the best ways to address the country’s dependence on net migration, he said – both costly measures at a time of little money.

Immigration in the United Kingdom could decline this year as a clutch of new rules to curb migrant inflows are beginning to have an impact, while the October budget that makes it more expensive to hire workers will be a further drag.

Professor Bell said he believed net migration would settle at around 250,000 to 300,000 a year, returning close to the average over the past 20 years.

The new Labour government, which swept the July 4 general elections, has asked the Migration Advisory Committee to evaluate the continuing reliance of key sectors, particularly information technology and engineering, to international recruitment. The review is part of the Labour government’s new strategy to not use immigration as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems in the U.K.