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As UK net migration falls, right-leaning outlets report on surge in citizenship applications

26 May 202620 views0

In a stark display of media bias, right-leaning media outlets in the UK ran stories of a surge in applications for British citizenship shortly after official figures showed net migration in the UK fell by nearly 50%, reaching its lowest level since 2012 (excluding the Covid pandemic).

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently announced plans that will change settlement rules for those living in the UK. Commentary from the Institute for Government wrote, under these plans, “migrants who arrived in the UK since 2021, expecting to be granted indefinite leave to remain five years after their arrival date, may face a further five to 10 years before they can permanently settle.”

The so-called “Boriswave” – a term used to describe the steep increase in migration to the UK from outside the EU following Brexit, when Boris Johnson was prime minister – has featured prominently in right-leaning coverage of the figures, with Reform UK announcing an inquiry into its costs. The term has received little to no coverage in left-leaning outlets, which have largely framed the same statistics through the lens of the government’s broader immigration policy trajectory and the internal Labour rebellion against Mahmood’s reforms.

Consequently, right-leaning sources have published stories that suggest a frantic rush to secure citizenship. More than 312,000 refugees, migrant workers and their families applied for citizenship in the twelve months to March, the highest number on record and double the figure seen eight years ago. In the two years to March, a further 331,000 migrants applied for indefinite leave to remain – a 28 per cent increase on the two preceding years.

The surge in applications is widely attributed in part to uncertainty generated by the government’s proposed overhaul of settlement rules. Left-leaning outlets have largely not written about the citizenship application figures altogether, focusing instead on the fall in net migration as a policy success and on internal Labour opposition to the settlement reforms.