It wasn’t a warm welcome from Extinction Rebellion protesters for the Home Secretary. Once they’d been chucked out, Soella Bravman said she wanted to welcome fewer legal immigrants.
We need to get overall immigration numbers down. And we mustn’t forget how to do things for ourselves.
The Home Secretary (Westminster).
On just the other side of the Thames, Lambeth is home to many of those who make up the biggest source of legal migration, international students.
We spoke to two who are planning on staying to work in the UK after their studies finish.
Andrea dragun;
It’s quite sad because I see so many foreign students doing so much, studying so hard and having such amazing results at university that it would definitely not be the same without them.
I think if it’s something that is discouraging for students to come, you’d feel like it’s a welcoming environment, especially as an immigrant.
with the trend since the pandemic;
After a lull because of the pandemic, visa grants have surged back. Sponsored study visas and visas given to their dependents are the largest chunk, shown in brown. The question is how much of a long -term difference that makes? For example, more than 220 ,000 people were issued a sponsored study visa in 2011.
A decade later, only 13% of them remained in the UK, fewer than 30 ,000. And in the meantime, students bring in a huge amount of money to the Treasury.
Higher education -related exports, the vast majority of which is international students paying fees in the UK, were worth £19 .5 billion in 2021.
That’s not much less than exports for the entire British pharmaceutical sector last year, and it’s even more than aerospace exports, £15 .2 billion in 2021.
We’ve been focusing on students because it’s such a large part of the total, and it shows some of the complexity.
Because usually when we talk about immigration, it’s in terms of just a number, and usually for the politicians talking about it, that number is too big. But this touches almost every industry, and it raises the question of what sort of economy do we want the UK to be?
The halls of power will have to take into consideration the student halls of Lambeth, and a lot else besides.
