![]() The main source of data on this is the International Passenger Survey (IPS), which is in turn the basis for ONS estimates of net migration. Length of stay: In its analyses of migration into and out of Britain, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) uses the UN definition of ‘long-term international migrant’: “A person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least a year so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence (UN 1998)”. UK nationals with other citizenships further complicate this picture, as oftentimes only one of their citizenships is captured in the data source. If self-reported, ‘nationality’ may be interpreted as describing an elective affinity dependent on social and cultural factors and personal feelings, rather than legal status. This definition is viewed as more problematic than country of birth, as a person’s nationality can change. Nationality: ‘Migrant’ alternatively may be defined as ‘foreign national’, for example in data obtained from National Insurance Number (NINo) applications. They are not subject to immigration control, nor do they count as migrants, when migration is defined by nationality. Although this is an intuitive definition of a migrant, many foreign-born people are also British citizens. These studies typically rely on the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Annual Population Survey (APS), which are comprehensive sources of data on workers and labour markets in the UK. These vary along several dimensions.Ĭountry of birth: Analyses of the impacts of migrants on the UK economy usually define migrants as ‘foreign-born’. While the UK was part of the EU, EU nationals were not subject to immigration control although they were often described as migrants.īut if a migrant is not necessarily ‘someone subject to immigration control’, what alternative definitions exist?ĭatasets for understanding migration in the UK use – and allow for analyses based on – different definitions of ‘migrant,’ as shown in Table 1. From a legal perspective, there is a key distinction between ‘Persons Subject to Immigration Control’, who need permission to enter or to remain in the UK, and those ‘Not Subject to Immigration Control’ who do not. There is no definition of ‘migrant’ or of ‘immigrant’ in law. No two definitions of migrant are equivalent, and their effects on our understanding of migration and its impact are significant. In some scholarly and everyday usage, people who move internally within national boundaries are called migrants. ![]() ![]() While dictionary definitions distinguish ‘immigrants’ – people who are or intend to be settled in their new country – from ‘migrants’ who are temporarily resident, ‘immigrant’ and ‘migrant’ (as well as ‘foreigner’) are often used interchangeably in public debate and even among research specialists. ![]() ![]() In some instances, children who are UK-born or UK nationals, but whose parents are foreign-born or foreign-nationals, are included in the migrant population. Migrants might be defined by foreign birth, by foreign citizenship, or by their movement into a new country to stay temporarily (sometimes for as little as one month) or to settle for the long-term. Yet there is no consensus on a single definition of a ‘migrant’. When counting migrants and analysing the consequences of migration, who counts as a migrant is of crucial importance. There are many ways to interpret the term ‘migrant’ ![]()
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