U.K. Immigration From EU at Six-Year Low as Brexit Bites

(Bloomberg) --

The number of European Union nationals moving to the U.K. has fallen to its lowest level in six years.

Immigration from the other 27 EU countries fell to 200,000 in the year through March as fewer people sought work in Britain, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. Net migration from the EU -- arrivals minus departures -- dropped to 59,000 compared with levels more than three times that before the 2016 Brexit referendum.

The fall will dismay businesses from hospitality to food manufacturing that rely on European workers. Many are already struggling to fill vacancies. However, the figures will be welcomed by Brexit supporters, some of whom were motivated by a desire to curb immigration when they voted to leave the EU.

The effect has been most pronounced among citizens of the eight countries including Poland that joined the trading bloc in 2004. They are now leaving the U.K. on balance, the ONS said.

But while EU migration has fallen, the net flow of people from outside the group has risen. Overall net migration in the year through March stood at 226,000, only marginally lower than a year earlier.

Britain has a decade-old target to reduce net migration to less than 100,000 a year. However, the government has never come close to meeting it, and new Prime Minister Boris Johnson has indicated he is ready to ditch the goal in favor of a more liberal immigration regime based on an Australian-style points system.

The latest migration report is partially based on adjusted figures drawing on multiple data sources after the ONS was criticized for relying too heavily on the International Passenger Survey, which carries out interviews at the main U.K. ports.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Lucy Meakin

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