In the twelve months to June 2024, approximately 1.2 million people migrated to the United Kingdom, while 479,000 emigrated away from the country, resulting in a net migration figure of 728,000.

For the year ending June 2024, approximately 1.2 million people migrated to the United Kingdom, while 479,000 people migrated from the UK, resulting in a net migration figure of 728,000. There have consistently been more people migrating to the United Kingdom than leaving it since 1993 when the net migration figure was negative 1,000. Although migration from the European Union has declined since the Brexit vote of 2016, migration from non-EU countries accelerated rapidly from 2021 onwards. In the year to June 2023, 968,000 people from non-EU countries migrated to the UK, compared with 129,000 from EU member states. Immigration and the next UK election Throughout 2023, immigration, along with the economy and healthcare, was consistently seen by UK voters as one of the top issues facing the country. Despite a pledge to deter irregular migration via small boats, and controversial plans to send asylum applicants to Rwanda while their claims are being processed, the current government is losing the trust of the public on this issue. As of February 2024, 20 percent of Britons thought the Labour Party would be the best party to handle immigration, compared with 16 percent who thought the Conservatives would handle it better. With the next UK election expected at some point in 2024, the Conservatives are battling to improve their public image on this and many other issues. Historical context of migration The first humans who arrived in the British Isles, were followed by acts of conquest and settlement from Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans. In the early modern period, there were also significant waves of migration from people fleeing religious or political persecution, such as the French Huguenots. More recently, large numbers of people also left Britain. Between 1820 and 1957, for example, around 4.5 million people migrated from Britain to America. After World War Two, immigration from Britain's colonies and former colonies was encouraged to meet labor demands. A key group that migrated from the Caribbean between the late 1940s and early 1970s became known as the Windrush generation, named after one of the ships that brought the arrivals to Britain.

In the year ending June 2024, approximately 1.03 million people from outside the European Union migrated to the United Kingdom, compared with 116,000 people from European Union countries, and 58,000 British nationals.

From January to September 2020, the highest number of illegal immigrants that arrived in Spain via land and sea came from Algeria, with approximately 7,600 people. The immigrants from Morocco and Mali were the second and third most numerous group, with 3,900 and 2,400 people leaving their country of residence, respectively. While more than 41,000 illegal immigrants reached the Iberian country in 2020, this figure represents merely eight percent of all immigrants that arrived in Spain that year.

A risky journey Spain, together with Italy and Greece, are the main points of entry to Europe for illegal migration. Most arrivals happen through the Mediterranean Sea, which is a very dangerous journey for migrants. Only in 2020, 1,717 people died or went missing while trying to reach the Spanish shores, more than in any of the last ten years. The Canary Islands is the area where the most people lost their lives. While active since 2006, the migration route from the coasts of West Africa to the Canary Islands (the closest territory of the European Union) has become particularly popular in recent years, even though so many people lost their lives there.

Undocumented minors

Among those reaching the Spanish territory are undocumented and unaccompanied minors, known in Spanish as "menas” (Menores Extranjeros No Acompañados). In 2018, the number of unaccompanied and separated children that arrived by sea exceeded seven thousand, which represented the largest figure since at least 2014. This number decreased by approximately 3,700 cases in 2020. Nearly half of them came from Morocco, separated from Spain by merely 13 kilometres of water at the Gibraltar Strait's narrowest point.

Data are transcripts based on focus groups and qualitative interviews with social care practitioners, and interviews with members of migrant families living in the UK. Practitioner data relates to focus groups, and some interviews, conducted at the start of the study which then informed the content of one-to-one ‘mid-point’ interviews with other practitioners. Professional groups represented are linked to anonymised collaborating organisations, including: educators, family support workers, social workers and youth and community workers. Further data is based on interviews conducted with practitioners ‘external’ to the collaborating organisation, most of whom were qualified social workers. Data generated via work with migrant families include transcripts from interviews with members of migrant families. Some were interviewed separately, and others in pairs, or as a group of three. Prior to the interviews, participants completed creative diaries. However, these included names, photographs and highly personal accounts. As such, they cannot be anonymised and have not been used as data but, rather an elicitation tool in the interviews. For this reason, the content of the diaries is not shared here. All transcripts have been anonymised. Names have been replaced with pseudonyms and other identifying characteristics have been removed, including the names of identifying collaborating organisations. The study was conducted across two cities that are identified: Hull and Sheffield. For this reason, the cities and the names of some organisations and areas of the city that are referenced have not been changed.
The ‘Everyday Bordering in the UK: the impact of everyday bordering on social care practitioners and the migrant families with whom they work’, was a 30-month project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, 2020-2022. The project sought to understand if and how the UK’s increasingly hostile environment towards immigration impacts on social care practitioners and the families that they support. The aims of the project were therefore: to work with social care professionals, (with and without statutory immigration control and/or social care duties), and the migrant families supported by them to understand whether, and to what extent, practices of ‘everyday bordering’ permeate across social care professions working with a range of migrant families (refugees, asylum seekers, EU migrants and third country nationals); and to examine if and how the requirement to enact immigration control in ‘everyday’ professional practice impacts on the support migrant families receive. More broadly, the objectives of the study were: to compare whether and to what extent different social care professionals enact and/or resist ‘everyday’ bordering’ practices in their work with migrant family members, and the forms these practices take; and to understand how migrant individuals identify and experience the performance of these practices.

In order to achieve these aims and objectives, the study took a collaborative approach. Through a range of ethnographic activities, we worked with collaborating organisations and their partners to identify participants (practitioner and migrant family members) and to inform and refine the research questions. This included using semi-structed focus groups and interviews with practitioners, and interviews supported by elicitation techniques with members of migrant families. As part of the project, we also conducted creative art workshops to enable migrant family members to identify the ways in which they wanted to represent their experiences of everyday bordering. A group of young family migrant family members that we worked with in Sheffield chose to use photography, and this was exhibited as 'A Tale of Two Sheffields', in partnership with ‘City of Sanctuary – Sheffield’ at the 2022 Migrant Matters Festival. In Hull, family members chose to work with local community artists to create short films of interviews that they curated. These are included as resource in the project output, ‘Working with Migrant Communities: a resource for practitioners’. These activities and creative outputs, underpinned by the findings of the study, gave voice to members of migrant families that told us that they often feel unheard. They have also contributed to addressing a gap in training and resources for practitioners working with migrant family members.

The global movement of people is a growing feature of contemporary life. In the UK, policy and the media focus on the need to control all types of immigration and/or the possible 'illegality' of migrants. In 2012, for example, Theresa May stated that the Conservative-led Government aimed to deliberately create a 'hostile environment' by denying illegal immigrants access to work, housing, services and bank accounts. Subsequently, whilst some public servants, such as health care professionals, were already responsible for checking a person's immigration...

In 2024, approximately 36,816 people reached the United Kingdom by crossing the English Channel in a small boat. Attempts to reach the UK via the Channel have increased significantly since 2020, with travel and trade disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic likely one of the main factors.

In 2024, the net migration rate in France reached 152,000. In recent years Europe and France have seen more people arrive than depart. The net migration rate is the difference between the number of immigrants (people coming into an area) and the number of emigrants (people leaving an area) throughout the year. France's highest net migration rate was reached in 2018 when it amounted to 201,000. Armed conflicts and economic migration are some of the reasons for immigration in Europe. The refugee crisis Studies have shown that there were 331,000 immigrant arrivals in France in 2022, which has risen since 2014. The migrant crisis, which began in 2015 in Europe, had an impact on the migration entry flows not only in France but in all European countries. The number of illegal border crossings to the EU over the Eastern Mediterranean route reached a record number of 885,386 crossings in 2015. Immigration in France Since the middle of the 19th century, France has attracted immigrants, first from European countries (like Poland, Spain, and Italy), and then from the former French colonies. In 2023, there were approximately 8.9 million people foreign-born in France. Most of them were living in the Ile-de-France region, which contains Paris, and in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in the Southeastern part of the country. In 2022, the majority of immigrants arriving in France were from Africa and Europe.

The majority of immigrants in Poland in 2023 were from Ukraine (40,000), a decrease of 14 percent compared to the previous year. Immigration to Poland for different reasons In 2022, nearly 14,000 people immigrated to Poland for permanent residence, of which most came from Ukraine, the UK, and Germany, respectively. Furthermore, the majority of immigrants for temporary stay in Poland in 2022 were from Ukraine (46,000 immigrants), a decrease of 1.5 percent compared to the previous year. In 2023, most Ukrainian citizens chose Poland as a place for economic emigration. The main reason for that choice was geographical and cultural proximity. Nearly every second respondent valued the low language barrier, and for every third person, the motivation was earnings. Poles attitudes toward Russia’s war with Ukraine In 2022, most Poles had a negative attitude toward Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Poles’ biggest concerns about the Russia-Ukraine war were the military threats from Russia and the impact of the war on the condition of the Polish economy. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Poles proved their support for Ukrainians. One of the most common forms of support for refugees fleeing the Russia-Ukraine war to Poland was to provide blankets, food, and hygiene items. Four out of 10 Poles donated money to a charity fundraiser and volunteered in organizations.

Data collected in South West England exploring why people seek access to immigration advice, what happens when advice is not available and how to improve access to services in the region. The focus of the data is broadly speaking people with protection-based immigration claims and related human rights. Data were collected during 11 months of fieldwork in the region, semi-structured interviews with people seeking immigration advice, people providing immigration advice and other organisations acting as referral points to legal services. Due to ethical constraints, the data cannot be shared for future reuse. The interview schedules have been uploaded to the record.

My PhD research examines how asylum seekers and other people with human rights claims navigate the British immigration system. I am particularly interested in the role that advice plays in mediating the relationship between the state and individuals, in the context of a system where immigration advice is highly regulated and immigration law is exceptionally complex (Law Commission 2020) and access to legal aid has been significantly reduced over the past decade (Singh and Webber 2010; Meyler and Woodhouse 2013; York 2013). The relationship between ideas about who has responsibility for access to justice, and the role of the state within this, is important at a time when policy discourses of austerity and hostile immigration politics have a profound impact on those without legal citizenship and who are unable to afford to pay for private legal advice in relation to their immigration applications.

The fellowship is an opportunity for me to develop research to inform justice policy around the impact of the growth of legal aid 'advice deserts' (Burridge and Gill 2017; Wilding 2019) due to the withdrawal of publicly funded legal services. In my PhD, I found that where individuals are unable to access legal aid it can compound and intensify the risks that they face. As part of my PhD research I co-established a clinical legal education project within the University of Exeter Law School, which assists individuals with applications for legal aid through the 'Exceptional Case Funding' scheme. The ECF scheme has been a particularly controversial part of legal aid reform among legal practitioners and the not-for-profit sector (York 2013; Amnesty International 2016). The aim of the clinic is to facilitate greater access to the legal aid system by assisting individuals with applications to secure public funding for their immigration cases.

My PhD research was a collaborative project that developed with two partner organisations (Refugee Support Devon and Public Law Project). Through my research I seek to develop academic knowledge alongside practical interventions, and the fellowship will assist in developing these partnerships between the University of Exeter and external organisations. By continuing to develop my research in this area I hope to build a larger research project around the work of university law clinics and the changing dynamics of their work in the UK (Drummond and McKeever 2015), considering the use of technology in immigration advice. There is an opportunity to learn from overseas institutions that are leading in justice innovation, and to exchange knowledge, but attention also needs to be paid to how these schemes are situated within often different types of ideas and debates around the meaning of access to justice. For example, the US has a distinct history of legal advice provision, where debates also exist about the role that universities should play in providing services to the community and facilitating access to justice (Rhode 2009). A priority for my work is considering how university law clinics in the UK can develop their pro bono programmes and opportunities for student education while recognising their own role in shaping the powerful discourses that flow around understandings of the British state and who takes responsibility for the operation of justice systems.

The fellowship will allow me to consolidate the impact of my PhD research through publications, with two primary objectives: to contribute to the development of academic knowledge across the disciplines of human geography and law; and, to ensure that my findings are available for use in policy consultation and to the legal and charitable sectors for other forms of policy intervention (for example, policy advocacy and litigation). It will also allow me to develop the trajectory of my research in relation to debates over the use of technology in the justice system and the use of legal innovation to develop new models of advice provision.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, approximately 81.9 percent of people born in the European Union but living in the UK were employed, compared with 74.7 percent for UK nationals and 74.4 percent for people outside the EU and UK. Since 2006, the employment rate for people born in the EU has consistently been higher than UK nationals and non-EU nationals.

The largest number of immigrants in Germany were from Ukraine, as of 2023. The top three origin countries were rounded up by Romania and Turkey. Immigrants are defined as having left a country, which may be their home country, to permanently reside in another. Upon arriving, immigrants do not hold the citizenship of the country they move to. Immigration in the EU All three aforementioned countries are members of the European Union, which means their citizens have freedom of movement between EU member states. In practice, this means that citizens of any EU member country may relocate between them to live and work there. Unrestricted by visas or residence permits, the search for university courses, jobs, retirement options, and places to live seems to be defined by an enormous amount of choice. However, even in this freedom of movement scheme, immigration may be hampered by bureaucratic hurdles or financial challenges. Prosperity with a question mark While Germany continues to be an attractive destination for foreigners both in and outside the European Union, as well as asylum applicants, it remains to be seen how current events might influence these patterns, whether the number of immigrants arriving from certain countries will shift. Europe’s largest economy is suffering. Climbing inflation levels in the last few months, as well as remaining difficulties from the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are affecting global economic development. Ultimately, future immigrants may face the fact of moving from one struggling economy to another.

With nearly 49,000 living in Denmark as of January 1, 2024, most immigrants were from Poland. The second and third largest groups of immigrants were from Ukraine and Romania, amounting to roughly 41,000 and 40,000 people, respectively. Tightening immigration policies Like many European countries, Denmark experienced a heightened influx of immigrants in 2015. In the wake of the refugee situation, however, the number of immigrants, notably asylum seekers, declined in part due to sharpened immigration policies. In 2015, over 21,000 refugees applied for asylum in Denmark, whereas applications fell below 5,000 in 2022. Residence permits Among the different types of residence permits, permits granted based on asylum were the least delivered type of permit. Only 1,400 people were granted asylum in Denmark in 2022. The highest number of asylum seekers came from Ukraine, even when excluding Ukrainians arriving via the temporary protection act. In 2022, Denmark registered around 2,000 applications from Ukrainians.

In 2020, cumulative South African emigrants amounted to roughly 915,000. The vast majority settled in the United Kingdom (around 247,000), followed by Australia (nearly 200,000). Together, the two countries constituted roughly 49 percent of the total South African migrants living abroad. Moreover, the third major country of destination for South Africans was the United States, with about 117,000 people living there. Overall, the 21 countries presented covered 94.4 percent of all South African migrants.

Language: a primary driver of emigration destinations

Language is a factor that helps ease communication and integration for individuals within a new society. Noticeably, the five leading destinations for South African emigrants had English as an official language. In South Africa, English was the second most spoken language outside households. Furthermore, the Netherlands ranked seventh, which language can also justify. Afrikaans, a language developed from 17th-century Dutch, was the third most spoken language among households in South Africa.

Unemployment a major worry and prevalent among youth    

A real worry for South Africans in 2022 was unemployment. As of April 2022, 64 percent of the respondents of a survey reported concern regarding the job market and the unemployment situation in the country. As of the first quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate among the age groups 15-24 years and 25-34 years was significantly higher than the rest, reaching 63.9 percent and 42.1 percent, respectively.

There were approximately 62 thousand Polish nationals living in Scotland as of June 2021, the most common non-British nationality in Scotland, followed by Irish nationals, at 21 thousand.