User:IsabellaWood01/Modern immigration to the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom uses statistics to predict migration that are produced primarily from the International Passenger Survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics(ONS). The survey’s primary mission is to help government’s understand the effects of tourism and travel on their economy. Two parliamentary committees criticized the survey and found it to lack credibility. The actual net migration in 2015-16 from EU states to the United Kingdom, 29,000, was 16% higher than the ONS expected.

A child born in the United Kingdom is not always a legal resident of the UK. If the child’s parents are both illegal immigrants, the child will not be considered a citizen.

Citizenship in the United Kingdom is divided into two classifications: citizenship by descent or citizenship by legal methods. The difference between the two is important in whether or not citizenship can be passed down to children if the children are born outside of the UK. The children of British citizens who earned their citizenship through legal methods are automatically given citizenship in the UK. Children of British citizens who are citizens by descent do not have the same status as their parents if they are born outside of the UK. There are qualifications that those children have to meet in order to be given citizenship.