Immigration has been one of the most debated topics in UK politics in recent years. It was a key feature during the 2024 general election. Both Labour and the Conservatives argue that current levels of immigration are too high. Both are committed to reducing net migration and they have been especially focused on ‘stopping the boats’: halting the trafficking of migrants to the UK outside official channels. Perceptions around illicit migration were widely reported to have underpinned recent riots in the UK — though there were also other underlying causes for these disturbances.
Migration has an impact on questions of national identity and belonging, as well as on matters associated with available skills, access to resources, education places, crime and alleged pressures on welfare services. All are of deep interest to sociologists, of course. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), around 1.2 million documented long-term immigrants arrived in the UK in 2023. Emigration from the UK — those people who left — totalled an estimated 532,000, meaning that officially recognised net migration to the UK in 2023 was estimated to be around 685,000 (see Figure 1).
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