Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to remove international students from the Government’s migration targets following the decision to leave the EU.

Mr Robert Goodwill

International students are included in net migration statistics that are produced by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS). In line with the internationally agreed UN definition, these statistics define a migrant as someone changing their normal place of residence for more than a year. Students are therefore included in the same way as other migrants. Other countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia also include students in their net migration figures.

Like other migrants, students who stay for longer than 12 months have an impact on communities, infrastructure and services while they are here, so it is right that they are included in the net migration count.

We are committed to reducing non-EU migration across all visa routes in order to bring net migration down to sustainable levels as soon as possible.