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BREXIT 'NEEDS TO BE FULLY COMPLETED' SAYS FARAGE In the year leading up to June, the UK issued more than 330,000 working visas, more than in any other year on record. Far from
Brexit shutting the UK off from the world, during its first year the Government’s new immigration policies have enabled the country to welcome large numbers of skilled migrants, as well as
record numbers of students from India, China and Nigeria. RELATED ARTICLES The UK granted 331,233 work-related visas in the year ending June 2022, 72 percent more than in 2019, according to
Home Office statistics. This the highest number of work visas issued in any 12-month period since current records began in 2005. Some of this increase can be attributed to the introduction
of entry visa requirements for European Union nationals since Brexit, although these represented just 10 percent of the total in the past year. Testament to the enduring global appeal of the
UK, the number of work-related visas awarded to non-European nationals rose by 55 percent on 2019 levels. Immigration to the UK has not been dramatically reduced by Brexit as many feared
(Image: GETTY) Priti Patel has been Home Secretary since Boris Johnson took office (Image: GETTY) In June, senior fellow at UK in a Changing Europe Jonathan Portes said: “The new system does
not represent an unequivocal tightening of immigration controls. “Rather, it rebalances the system from one which was essentially laissez-faire for Europeans, while quite restrictionist
for non-Europeans, to a uniform system that, on paper at least, has relatively simple and transparent criteria. “Indeed, the first year of the regime has seen a significant rise in work
visas issues compared to pre-pandemic levels, particularly in the health sector, and an even larger rise in the number of international student visas. “I conclude that there is some cause
for optimism about the economic impacts of the new post-Brexit UK immigration system.” READ MORE: GOVE TIPPED TO QUIT AS AN MP WITH CRUNCH BY-ELECTION ALERT SOUNDED How Brexit unfolded
(Image: EXPRESS) Oxford University consistently ranks among the top universities in the world (Image: GETTY) RELATED ARTICLES Neither Brexit nor the pandemic have dampened the UK’s status as
an intellectual powerhouse, as the country’s world-class universities continue to attract the brightest minds. There were a record 486,868 sponsored study visas granted in the year to June
2022, 71 percent more than 2019. Almost a quarter of these grants, 24.2 percent, or 117,965, were to Indian nationals, an increase of 215 percent on the previous year. Nigerian nationals
saw the largest relative increase in sponsored study visas, soaring by 686 percent on 2019 to reach a record high of 65,929, making them the third largest nationality group behind Chinese
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Airport is a major hub for arrivals to the UK (Image: GETTY) EU Settlement Scheme numbers published by the Home Office also show that far from being driven out of the country by Brexit,
Europeans already resident in the UK typically preferred to stay. The latest data show 6.7 million applications to the scheme had been received up to 30 June 2022, of which 6.5 million had
been concluded – far more than the 3.5 to 4.1 million originally expected. There were 40,602 EU Settlement Scheme permits issued to family members of EU nationals resident in the UK over the
past year, more than six times the number granted in 2019. EU nationals also accounted for over a quarter (27 percent) of all citizenship applications in the latest year, compared to just
12 percent in 2016. A research paper published by the OECD just before the Brexit referendum called The Economic Consequences of Brexit claimed immigration accounted for half of the UK’s
total economic growth from 2005 to 2015. The study forecast that closing Britain’s borders due to a withdrawal from the EU would significantly weaken the economy – causing it to contract by
up to 7.7 percent – owing to a “smaller pool of skills”. Immigration statistics for the first full year after Brexit free from the impact of the pandemic show roughly 400,000 migrants
joined the labour force during the year, more than four times what was predicted by the OECD in 2016. The Telegraph’s World Economy Editor, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, wrote the UK now has “one
of the most liberal and open immigration systems among the developed economies, and considerably more open in key respects than the large EU states.” Since the war began there has been an
outpouring of support for Ukrainians in the UK (Image: GETTY) In contrast to the image of a nation unfriendly to refugees conjured up by the Rwanda deportation policy, the UK has in fact
opened its doors to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war or persecution. The UK offered asylum or humanitarian protection to 15,684 people in the year ending June 2022, similar to
the average between 2015 and 2018. As of August 23, 178,900 visas had been granted under the Government’s visa schemes set up for Ukrainians in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion. In 2020,
as Xi Jinping encroached on the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered up to three million of the territory’s residents the chance to settle in the UK.