Topics / Migration, nation and identity
Should the UK significantly reduce net migration?
Should the UK aim for significantly lower net migration, or should policy focus instead on planning for current levels, on the mix of people who come, or on irregular arrivals? The question combines contested evidence about economic, fiscal and social effects with differing values about democratic consent, prosperity, fairness and control of borders.
Positions
- Reduce significantly: Net migration in recent years has been too high for housing, public services and communities to absorb, so the UK should bring it down substantially and keep it at a sustainably lower level.
- Keep levels similar, manage better: The main problem is planning, investment and integration, not the number of people coming: the UK should keep migration broadly at moderate levels and manage its effects far better.
- Increase selectively: An ageing society needs more working-age people, so the UK should increase migration in a targeted way, especially of people with skills and earnings that strengthen the economy and public finances.
- Focus on illegal migration, not legal levels: The priority should be control over who enters the UK, especially ending irregular arrivals, rather than the overall level of legal migration, which Parliament can set deliberately.