UK announces EU migration study over Brexit impact

The government is commissioning a "detailed assessment" of the costs and benefits of EU migrants as it plans how to manage immigration after Brexit. A new set of rules is needed for when EU free movement ends in the UK.
An independent committee, tasked with drawing up the Government's immigration policy post-Brexit, has been asked to look specifically at how EU migrants affect different sectors of the UK economy amid suggestions new rules could be made for different industries.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said it would be a "major step in ensuring we create a system that works in the best interests of the country".
"Leaving the European Union gives us the opportunity to take control of immigration from the EU. We will ensure we continue to attract those who benefit us economically, socially and culturally," Rudd said in an emailed statement.

“The study I am asking the Migration Advisory Committee to complete is a major step in ensuring we create a system that works in the best interests of the country” she underlined.

The announcement marks the start of the Government's plan for how immigration will be controlled when the UK leaves the EU and is no longer bound by freedom of movement rules.

Concern about the long-term social and economic impact of immigration helped drive last year's vote to leave the EU, and the government has a long-standing aim to bring net migration into Britain below 100,000. In 2016, total net migration was 248,000.

But a wide range of companies have expressed concern that they will not be able to hire the people they need to operate, from skilled financiers to unskilled farm workers. The effect could be to force them to relocate.