Immigration Into the United Kingdom

Abstract

Migration is a process which results in an increase or a decrease of population. When analysing the immigration policy of the United Kingdom, it is important to be aware of two key factors which influenced it: the country’s location and its colonial history. As an island, the UK has developed a very strong system of border control while at the same time there is limited control within its borders which can be demonstrated e.g. by the absence of identity cards. The aim of this article is to evaluate immigration into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland based on available statistical data between 2004 and 2012. The data will be also used for a forecast of development of the numbers of immigrants from different countries and for illustrating possible immigration trends in the future. The article will mainly focus on a question whether in the near future the UK will experience an increase or a decrease in immigration or whether the number of immigrants will stay constant. Convergence analysis will be used to evaluate the data for individual administrative regions at the NUTS II level. The article will also detail numbers of immigrants per 1,000 inhabitants and it will answer a question whether there is convergence or divergence in the number of immigrants among different regions.

Keywords

• migration
• United Kingdom
• statistical methods
• forecast
• convergence analysis