FOI Ref: FOI/2023/4944
You asked
I am writing to you to obtain the statistical information involving the demographical shift in a population. The UK has an open door policy towards refugees, asylum seekers, economic immigrants, and a commonwealth immigration policy. The successful immigrate can apply and obtain UK citizenship and apply to also thereafter to have voting rights.
The democratic model of governance in the UK allows a UK immigrant citizen the right to vote. Therefore, there must be the statistical information to support and show to what extent a population group maybe inclined more than others to register to vote.
This will help me to determine whether the political aspiration of any one population group is motivated by their country of origin and their cultural background.
I would need the information for successful immigration applicants as follows
1) The country of origin of all successful UK immigration applicants
2) Whether or not they are part of the British commonwealth
3) The date they first registered to vote on the UK electoral roll
4) The country of origin of EU citizens who have registered to vote on the UK electoral roll
We said
Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
We do not hold data on the status of immigration applications to the UK. Therefore, we cannot currently provide estimates on the individual country of origin of 'all successful UK immigration applicants'. By extension, we also do not hold an estimate of those who have migrated from Commonwealth nations.
Unfortuantely, we also do not hold migration data based by UK electoral registration status or on 'EU citizens' based by UK electoral registration status.
We have, however, published estimates on thecountries of originof some immigrants to the UK. Please see our most recent bulletin on long-term international migration, year-ending June 2022 (provisional). In section 4 ("Migration Events"), for example, we estimate -- using Home Office data -- that 89,000 people arrived in the UK from Ukraine in the year-ending June 2022. This figure is included in our total long-term immigration estimates. You might, also, be interested in the dataset associated with this bulletin. See table 1 ("LTIM by nationality") of the dataset to see estimates of inflow and outflow of the UK broken down by nationality to the level of 'British', 'EU' and 'Non-EU'.
You may be interested to know that soon, the ONS will release data combining multiple variables (including variables about demography and migration) based on the Census 2021 results in England and Wales. You may be able to use these flexible datasets to find an estimate of countries of origin of migrants.
You can find more statistics on the immigration system of the UK by visiting the Home Office's Immigration system statistics datasets, or by contacting the Home Office's migration statistics team (migrationstatsenquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk).
When accessing any of our files please read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them.