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Country Resource - United Kingdom
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United Kingdom

GB
  • Population............................................................................68,138,484 (2023 est.)
  • Population growth rate .................................................................0.49% (2023 est.)
  • Birth rate.....................................................10.8 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)
  • Death rate..................................................9.12 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)
  • Net migration rate.................................3.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)
  • Ethnic groups..............................White 87.2%, Black/African/Caribbean/black British 3%, Asian/Asian British: Indian 2.3%, Asian/Asian British: Pakistani 1.9%, mixed 2%, other 3.7% (2011 est.)

Note: Constituent countries by percentage of total population: England 84.3%, Scotland 8.2%, Wales 4.6%, Northern Ireland 2.8%

CIA World Factbook

Refugees prepare to be resettled in the United Kingdom.
Profile
August 19, 2021

United Kingdom’s Decades-Long Immigration Shift Interrupted by Brexit and the Pandemic

The United Kingdom was once a country primarily of emigration, but in recent decades many more migrants have arrived at its borders than have left. This decades-long transition was interrupted by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, and this article describes the inflection point at which the country finds itself.

Recent Activity

Cover Top10 5Citizenship
Top Ten
December 14, 2015
Governments Increasingly Restrict Citizenship

Citizenship came under fire in new ways around the world in 2015, with attempts to both restrict who is eligible to become a citizen and who can be deprived of citizenship. Driven by fears of international terrorism, a number of countries proposed or passed legislation making it easier to narrow citizenship and broadening the range of offenses for which individuals can be stripped of their citizenship.

Cover Top10 10InvestorVisas
Top Ten
December 7, 2015
Shine Wears Off Investor Visa Programs as Questions about Economic Benefits and Fraud Lead to Reforms

A number of countries in 2015 redesigned their immigrant investor visa programs in response to questions about their economic benefits or allegations of fraud. The reforms have in some cases made such programs far more costly and encouraged investment in higher-risk assets. Applications for such visas have fallen signficantly in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, as policymakers may have overestimated demand.

RedGreg TrainofHopeLinz Flickr
Feature
November 18, 2015
Immigrants in the Smart City: The Potential of City Digital Strategies to Facilitate Immigrant Integration

The digital era offers opportunities for cities to improve access and outreach to residents, including immigrants and minority groups, through online tools and apps. This feature article explores ditigal-inclusion strategies in "smart" cities New York, London, and Barcelona, as well as the creative use of new technologies in response to the European refugee crisis.

UKIP graphicmug FB
Feature
April 2, 2015
Assessing the Political Impact of Immigration as the United Kingdom Heads to the Polls
The United Kingdom has faced changing immigration patterns over the last two decades driven largely by EU migration, and political upheaval caused by the rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party and the Scottish National Party. Upcoming general elections in May 2015 will have a significant impact not only on immigration policies but the United Kingdom's place in the European Union.
The ruins of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul’s Old Town
Top Ten
December 11, 2014
Governments Fear Return and Intentions of Radicalized Citizens Fighting Abroad

Increasing numbers of Westerners heading to Syria and Iraq to join jihadist organizations like ISIS have governments concerned about possible attacks at home by returning fighters. Several thousand fighters from Europe and other Western countries are believed among the foreign nationals involved in conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Lawmakers scrambled in 2014 to respond with new policies, including seizing passports, stripping citizenship, and criminalizing travel to "no go" zones.

Top Ten
December 1, 2012
Governments Crack Down on Student Visa Fraud

The United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada remain top destinations for international students seeking a world-class education. Yet even as these countries and their universities recruit international students—both for their tuition fees and their brain power—they undertook efforts in 2012 to crack down on student visa fraud and some also sought to tighten entry requirements. Other top student destinations, however, are focused on using their visa policy to actively encourage student retention.

Top Ten
December 1, 2011
Immigrant Detention under Scrutiny in Australia, United Kingdom, and United States

Public backlash against the detention systems of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States mounted in 2011 with allegations of unacceptable living conditions, abuse, prolonged detention, and government waste.

Feature
February 23, 2011
Filling Labor Shortages through Immigration: An Overview of Shortage Lists and their Implications

Many governments use shortage lists to either facilitate or discourage economically-motivated immigration into particular occupations or fields, but the practice of doing so raises a variety of practical and philosophical questions. MPI's Madeleine Sumption discusses the challenges of maintaining shortage lists and developing immigration policies around them.

Feature
January 24, 2011
Unaccompanied Immigrant Children: A Growing Phenomenon with Few Easy Solutions

Destination countries of unaccompanied child migrants struggle with many questions related to why children migrate, how they should be received and processed, and whether they should be protected, integrated, or returned to their home countries. Amanda Levinson of ThirdSpace Consulting provides the context within which unaccompanied child migration occurs, and analyzes the policy response of the United States and European destination countries.

Top Ten
December 2, 2010
Not Just the Highly Skilled - Only the Best and Brightest, Please

In these lean times, countries still want the talent — key to their long-term competitiveness — but a handful want more assurance they're getting the cream of the cream, as well as skills they don't have already.

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Designing Civic Education for Diverse Societies
Reports
February 2018

Designing Civic Education for Diverse Societies: Models, Tradeoffs, and Outcomes

Across Europe, civic education programs are being asked to solve a range of social challenges—from dwindling political participation to the protection of immigrant and refugee youth from alienation and radicalization. While these challenges are shared across countries, the programs designed to address them vary considerably. This report explores differing models in Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Safe or Sorry? Prospects for Britons in the European Union after Brexit
Reports
November 2017

Safe or Sorry? Prospects for Britons in the European Union after Brexit

Amid ongoing Brexit negotiations, much remains uncertain for the roughly 1 million UK citizens living elsewhere in the European Union. This report offers a demographic profile of these Brexpats, considering what form an EU-UK deal on citizens’ rights might take and identifying key challenges many Britons are likely to face—including difficulty securing legal status and accessing labor markets, social security, and health-care systems.

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Reports
May 2016

Engaging the Anxious Middle on Immigration Reform: Evidence from the UK Debate

This report analyzes British polling data in a bid to paint a more accurate picture of public opinion on immigration in the United Kingdom, which is often described as having particularly hostile attitudes compared to other countries. The report examines several drivers of public opinion, including media coverage, and considers how recent migration policies can be linked to public opinion—including the call for a Brexit referendum.

coverthumb Into the Mainstream
Reports
June 2015

Into the Mainstream: Rethinking Public Services for Diverse and Mobile Populations

Despite the broad appeal of the concept of "mainstreaming" in integration policy in Europe, few agree on its exact meaning. This report synthesizes the findings of the UPSTREAM project's country case studies, which examined the extent to which governments in France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom are employing mainstreaming to meet the needs of rapidly diversifying populations.

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Reports
November 2014

Aiming Higher: Policies to Get Immigrants into Middle-Skilled Work in Europe

This report is the final one in an MPI-International Labour Office series that examines the employment prospects of migrants in the EU (focusing on the case-study countries of the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), as well as the effectiveness of integration and workforce development policies in helping these workers overcome barriers and ascend out of low-skilled work.
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Reports
October 2014

Benign Neglect? Policies to Support Upward Mobility for Immigrants in the United Kingdom

Immigrants in the United Kingdom find work easily thanks to a flexible labor market, but often have trouble moving up the ladder into middle-skilled work. This report examines how workforce and integration policies affect immigrant workers in the United Kingdom.
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Reports
August 2014

The Human-Capital Needs of Tech City, London

This report analyzes the importance of human capital to the development of London's Tech City and sets this discussion in a broader framework linking cities, digital sectors, and highly skilled immigration. Skilled migrants can play critical roles in economic development in high-tech clusters, but policies sometimes make it difficult for firms to make the most of immigration.
coverthumb Mainstreaming UK
Reports
July 2014

Advancing Outcomes for All Minorities: Experiences of Mainstreaming Immigrant Integration Policy in the United Kingdom

This report explores the accelerating trend in the United Kingdom of mainstreaming of immigrant integration, in which policymakers seek to reach people with a migration background through needs-based social programming and policies that also target the general population. The report has particular focus on policies and programs used in London and Glasgow.
coverthumb DG Empl Data Overview
Reports
July 2014

Moving Up or Standing Still? Access to Middle-Skilled Work for Newly Arrived Migrants in the European Union

The global economic crisis and changing migration patterns in Europe bring up questions about how well immigrants are able to find employment and progress into better jobs over time. This overview report caps a series of six country case studies evaluating the employment outcomes for foreign-born workers during their first decade in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
DGEmployment UK CoverThumb
Reports
May 2014

Moving Up the Ladder? Labor Market Outcomes in the United Kingdom amid Rising Immigration

This report analyzes the labor market integration of recent immigrants to the United Kingdom. During the 2000s, a large influx of labor from Eastern European countries transformed the United Kingdom's immigrant population and labor market. The report finds that over time, these new arrivals showed some progress in moving out of the lowest-skilled jobs.

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