Indian students lead exodus trend in UK’s latest migration data
Around 37,000 Indians who came for study reasons, 18,000 for work reasons and 3,000 for other unspecified reasons led the emigration trend followed by Chinese students and workers (45,000)
Indian students and workers are the largest group of foreigners to have left the UK over the past year amid tightening visa and immigration policies, showed the country’s latest migration statistics, released on Thursday.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis for 2024, around 37,000 Indians who came for study reasons, 18,000 for work reasons and 3,000 for other unspecified reasons led the emigration trend followed by Chinese students and workers (45,000). Nigerians (16,000), Pakistanis (12,000) and Americans (8,000) completed the top five emigrating nationalities, resulting in an overall net migration fall by 4,31,000 last year – almost half the total from the year before.
“Among people emigrating, India was the most common nationality,” reads the ONS analysis, based on UK Home Office data. “Study-related emigration was the most common reason for the five most frequent non-EU (European Union) nationalities to emigrate in YE (year-ending) December 2024. The increase in long-term emigration of non-EU+ nationals who originally arrived on study-related visas is primarily being driven by the large numbers of Indian and Chinese nationals leaving in YE December 2024,” it notes.
Mary Gregory, director of Population Statistics at the ONS, said the fall is driven largely by falling numbers of people coming to work and study in the UK, particularly student dependents. “There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased,” she said.
The UK government hailed the drop in net migration, an issue that has dominated the political agenda amid soaring figures and the far-right anti-immigration Reform party making considerable gains in recent elections.
“Under the Tories net migration reached nearly 1 million – roughly the size of the population of Birmingham. I know you are angry about this, and I promised you I would change it,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a social media statement. “Today’s stats show we have nearly halved net migration in the last year. We’re taking back control,” he said.
The drop is the largest ever recorded for a 12-month period and marks the most significant calendar-year fall in net migration since the early stages of the Covid pandemic, according to experts.
Meanwhile, long-term immigration to the UK fell below 1 million for the first time in around three years.
