Applications for British Citizenship increase From EU Nationals

The EU nationals have a plan to get a good position before the departure of the UK from the EU. Hence the Applications seeking British citizenship have increased. The Home Office feels that this is linked to an uncertainty regarding the result of referendum. It revealed the immigration statistics, for the year end (June 2018). It shows that the applications seeking British citizenship increased by 47% in comparison to 2017.

In the year, totally there were 42,037 applications. EU nationals have a share of 30% of citizenship applications in comparison to 11% for June 2016.  The EU nationals receiving British citizenship were 16,967 in 2016, and the figure increased to 31,464 in 2017.

This fact is noticeable when net migration of EU citizens declined to a low level in the last six years. For the year ending March 2018, 87,000 EU nationals moved to the UK, but the figure in the year-end June 2016 was 189,000. The fall in migrants will add to the fear that Brexit is moving towards a skill shortage.

A survey of 2,000 UK companies conducted recently disclosed that the employers experience a supply shock. A limited number of EU citizens prefer coming to the Kingdom to work and companies face a lot of struggle to fill up vacancies. The figures also show that there is a decrease, in net migration of European Union citizens, after the happening of the referendum.