Image source, .

Dr Peter Drechsler, chair of the ICC UK, external, has also been speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of the new figures being released.

He says “it’s worth remembering that every single person living in Britain today is the descendant of an immigrant”.

Drechsler adds it’s very important we change the narrative about migration so we are speaking about immigrants with “respect and appreciation”.

He continues by saying there “is no vision” or “strategy” from the government about what sort of “talent” the UK needs for its future workforce.

Image source, Reuters

Sir John Hayes, a long-standing Eurosceptic Conservative MP, has been speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of the release of the figures.

Bringing down "unprecedented population growth" is up to the whole government, not just the Home Office, he says.

"I think the government as a whole has got to grasp this issue.

"You can't grow your population at 700,000 a year - where on earth are you going to house these people? We build about 180,000 new homes a year."

When asked if the UK should be filling staff shortages in care homes with workers from abroad, he argues there are plenty of Britons who could fill vacancies.

“We’ve got 2.5 million people on long-term sick leave, many disabled people who want to work but simply can’t get jobs,” he says, adding that there are also many people still off work as a result of the Covid pandemic.

A migrant is someone who changes their country of usual residence. The reasons could include working, joining family members and studying.

An asylum seeker is someone who has applied for protection in another country because they are fleeing persecution - or the fear of persecution. Asylum seekers apply for protection and, if their application is successful, they are granted leave to remain in the country where they sought refuge.

If their application is refused, they may be removed.

The net migration figures we are expecting today capture the number of migrants who came to the UK for reasons such as working, joining a family member or studying.

They also include Ukrainian and Hong Kong citizens for whom the UK government opened special schemes - but they exclude asylum seekers.

The government can control migrationpublished at 08:56 British Summer Time 25 May 2023

08:56 BST 25 May 2023

Dominic Casciani
Home Correspondent

"Let's take back control," said the slogan behind Boris Johnson during the Brexit referendum campaign. But the truth is that - one way or another - the UK has always had many controls over immigration.

The real story is how it has exercised them.

When the UK was an EU member, the rules meant in principle that any citizen could seek work anywhere else - and that unfettered freedom of movement was behind many voters' support for leaving the club.

However, the UK could have exercised its right under EU rules to temporarily restrict workers from central and eastern Europe in 2004.

Germany and others did - and most experts believe that's why so many Poles and others came to the UK instead.

Since Brexit, those citizens have been subject to the same entry and settlement rules as people from the rest of the world.

The government can control how many people arrive for work, study or family reasons - it's up to ministers how many visas they grant.

Watch the prime minister's interview with our political editor, Chris Mason, from the weekend.

In 2010 - the year the Conservatives came to power - David Cameron made a pledge during the general election campaign to get net migration below 100,000 a year.

The Conservative manifestos in 2015 and 2017 said they would bring annual net migration into the tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands.

That target was not reached and it was abandoned in the 2019 manifesto. The 2019 manifesto said: “There will be fewer lower-skilled migrants and overall numbers will come down.”

In October 2022, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said it would be the “ultimate aspiration” to get the net migration figure down below 100,000.

But in an interview with GB News, Rishi Sunak said he was “not going to put an arbitrary number on it” when asked about Braverman’s pledge.

Labour have not had a net migration target. In November 2022, Keir Starmer called for the British economy to be weaned off "immigration dependency" - but has repeatedly declined to give a net migration target.

Net migration is the difference between the number of people who move to the UK to work, study or join family members for at least a year, and the number of people who leave the country.

Every year since 1994, the number of people coming to live in the UK has been greater than the number leaving.

In the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum, EU citizens made up the majority of people coming to the UK. They were able to do so under the EU’s freedom of movement rules, without a visa.

Since Brexit, the picture has changed. It is now people from non-EU countries who drive the net migration figures.

They are issued visas by the UK government to come to the UK to work, study, join family members or for other reasons.

Welcome to our live coverage of today's UK migration figures, which will be announced at 09:30 BST.

Net migration is the difference between the number of people arriving, and the number of people leaving.

The 09:30 figure is expected to show a record increase in the UK population.

The prime minister said at the weekend that migration was too high - while Labour has accused the government of "losing control".

Stay here for all the data and analysis.