Figures from the Office for National Statistics shows that Eastern Europeans in the UK are going home and Western Europeans aren’t bothering to come in the first place. Is Brexit to blame?
What it means: The EU net migration rate is the number of people who move to the UK from the EU each year minus the number who leave Britain for the EU (so it includes the movements of British expats). It is currently 93,000, which is its lowest level since 2012.
That should be good news for the Conservative government, who keep promising to significantly reduce net migration and then failing to come anywhere near their target. But a politically neutral research centre, the Migration Observatory, says the main reason EU migration has plummeted is because migrants don’t feel prospects for life and work in the UK are looking too good at the moment.
Most EU migrants move for work. But Britain isn’t producing new goods and services at as fast a rate as they were pre-Brexit. The pound is also weaker than the euro, meaning salaries paid in pounds don't buy as much on the continent as they used to. The end result is that Britain isn't as attractive to job-hunting migrants as it once was (our gloomy weather probably doesn't help matters).
