Brussels, 27/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - Net migration to the United Kingdom has reached a new record high, Reuters reported on Thursday 26 November, after the release of fresh statistics.
The country has seen 336,000 new arrivals in the year to the end of June 2015, compared with 254,000 to the end of June 2014.
EU citizens, too, have contributed to this rise, with the arrival of 265,000 European nationals, as against 223,000 to the end of June 2014. This increase is largely down to arrivals of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, says the National Statistics Office (NSO). Net migration (the difference in the numbers arriving in the country and those leaving) was 180,000 to the end of June, compared with 138,000 the previous year, the NSO adds.
These figures are at odds with the stated aim of UK Prime Minister David Cameron of cutting immigration to somewhere in the region of 100,000 annually, Reuters goes on. To make the country less attractive and within the framework of the talks opened with the EU, Cameron has proposed that European workers would have to live and work in the UK for four years before becoming eligible for social benefits. This call has not gone down well with the other member states and the UK may have to give up on it. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)