Net EU migration falls to lowest level since 2003 after Britain voted for Brexit but non-EU numbers continue to soar

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Net EU migration has plunged to their lowest level since 2003 after Britain voted for Brexit.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics found the last 12 months saw just 48,000 come here from the EU.

EU migration reached its lowest total since 2003.

They explained this was down to fewer people coming to Britain for work, as well as a record high returning home.

The figures reveal the number of people coming from the EU is now at its lowest level since the year ending March 2013.

Net immigration from the rest of the world jumped to 229,000 over the period, with the figure now growing ever year.

Including all over the world, Britains total net migration was 212,000 across the past 12 months.

An ONS spokesman said: Our best assessment using all data sources is that long-term immigration, emigration and net migration have remained broadly stable since the end of 2016.

However, we have seen different patterns for EU and non-EU citizens.

While there are still more EU citizens moving to the UK than leaving, EU net migration has fallen since 2016, driven by fewer EU arrivals for work.

In contrast, non-EU net migration has gradually increased for the past six years, largely as more non-EU citizens came to study.

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, claimed it was impossible to know what the future of migration was.

She explained: What will happen to migration in the coming years is highly uncertain, regardless of which party is power.

It’s easy to imagine migration policies are the only things that affect migration, but in reality, policies act more like a filter than a tap.

The state of the economy, demand for workers by UK employers, conditions in countries of origin can have a big impact on migration, in some cases even more than changes in policy.

That’s one reason why we’ve seen such a big drop in EU migration since 2016, despite the fact that policy has not yet changed at all.