The United Kingdom has seen record immigration levels in recent years, but following a visa crackdown in the first quarter of 2024, those numbers are starting to fall.
This year, Britain granted 139,100 visas to students, skilled workers, health care workers, and associated families. This number represents a sharp decrease from the previous year’s first-quarter total of 184,000. In the whole of 2023, these groups received 1.13 million visas, which comprised the majority of the numbers immigrating to the island.
There has been a markedly stark drop in the number of foreign students who have applied to bring relatives with them to Britain. Only 6700 such visas have been issued this year, compared to 32,900 in the first quarter of 2023—a drop of eighty percent. At the same time, the number of student visa applications have fallen from 72,800 to 40,700, according to the London Times.
The drop is partially explained by new rules which came into force on January 1. These rules prevent most foreign students from importing dependents during their term of study.
The figures were released to the public by The Home Office on April 29. They also reveal a decline of eighty-three percent in the number of health and care-worker visas over the month of March—this year’s number of 2,400 barely registers against the 14,300 issued over the same period last year.
There was, however, a last-minute rush of applications by relatives of care workers. They also have been barred from bringing dependents in, starting on March 11. The numbers before the deadline rose from 44.200 Q1 of 2023 to 49,300 in the same period this year.
These figures are good news for Rishi Sunak, who is running in this year’s General Election on a platform of immigration reform. Sunak’s immigration crackdown on other fronts seem to have been timed to coincide with the release of these figures. They came public attention shortly after the first deportation under Rishi Sunak’s migrant crackdown. On April 29, an asylum seeker was shuttled back to Rwanda under the new program.
