BREXIT CONCERNS
EU immigration to UK falls as business calls for open door
London — The number of EU immigrants coming to Britain fell to a five-year low in 2017, as fewer people arrived without a firm job offer during the first full calendar year since June 2016’s Brexit vote, official data showed on Monday. Concern about high rates of immigration was a major reason Britons voted to leave the EU, and Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed to end unrestricted free movement of EU citizens to Britain after the country leaves the bloc in March 2019. Businesses, however, want easy immigration rules to help fill job vacancies at a time of low unemployment, and almost all economists say Britain benefits financially from immigration. Monday’s data showed that overall net long-term immigration to Britain rose to 282,000 in 2017 from 249,000 in 2016, but well below the record of 332,000 recorded in 2015. But net immigration of EU citizens decreased to 101,000 in 2017 from 133,000 in 2016, and was almost half the number who had moved to Britain in the 12 months runnin...
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