Blitz Bureau
With the UK’s tightening visa and immigration policies, around 37,000 Indians who had come for study reasons have now left the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis for 2024. Another 18,000 who were in the country for work reasons have also departed. Additionally, 3,000 people who were in UK for other unspecified reasons have also emigrated.
Indian nationals form the largest group of foreigners who have left the country (emigrated) over the past year.
Following Indian nationals, Chinese students and workers accounted for 45,000 departures. Other notable nationalities in emigration statistics included Nigerians (16,000), Pakistanis (12,000) , and Americans (8,000), reported Firstpost. This substantial number of people leaving the UK has contributed to the overall net migration in the country dropping to 431,000 last year— almost half of the total from the year before that.
Study-related emigration was the primary reason for the departure of the five most frequent non-EU nationalities, with the increase in long-term emigration driven mainly by the high numbers of Indian and Chinese nationals leaving in 2024. Mary Gregory, Director of Population Statistics at the ONS, indicated that the fall in migration numbers is largely due to fewer people coming to the UK for work and study, 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. Meanwhile, the UK Government welcomed the drop in net migration, a topic that has been at the forefront of the political agenda amid soaring figures and gains by the far-right antiimmigration Reform party in recent elections.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer emphasised the significance of the decline, pointing out that net migration had nearly reached 1 million under the previous administration. He assured the public that the government is taking control, as evidenced by the latest statistics showing a nearly 50 per cent reduction in net migration over the past year.
