Parts 1 and 2 of this series are available here.
It is sometimes suggested that the UK is overrun by refugees and immigrants who should be some other country’s problem. In fact, Britain houses only around 1% of the worldwide total of 27.1 million refugees (of whom 41% are children). Other countries, often developing nations, support far greater numbers, notably Turkey, which in 2022 was housing 3.7 million Syrian refugees.
Is the UK becoming overrun?
Up to the end of February 2021, the UK had taken in 20,319 refugees from Syria under the vulnerable persons resettlement scheme. In the year to June 2025, the number of what the government terms ‘irregular arrivals’ rose by 27% compared with the previous year. Since 2018, about one sixth of these arrivals were children aged 17 or younger.
In 2025, however, the number of children arriving in this manner has dropped to 10%, while the percentage of adult males has risen. This demographic distribution fluctuates from year to year, and reflects the changing nationalities of refugees impacted by worldwide geopolitical developments.
It is widely believed that refugees and asylum seekers in the UK receive liberal handouts of public money from the government. This is not the case. Most people seeking asylum live in poverty, experiencing ill health and hunger. Many cannot even afford clothing, powdered milk and nappies. Nearly all are prohibited from working while their claim is being processed and must rely on state support.
The argument is sometimes made that ‘they all seem to have the latest smartphones and computers’. The truth is that the copious forms and documentation required for their asylum application are only accessible online. Furthermore, the equipment provided is often outdated and may be unreliable. In fact, their daily funding for all purposes comes to less than £7 per person. Asylum seekers do not come to the UK in order to claim benefits.
The benefits of net migration, including the NHS
The Office for Budget Responsibility points out that Britain benefits from net migration, which is forecast to reduce government deficits and borrowing by an amount equivalent to 1.1% of GDP – it predicts an associated fall in public sector net borrowing of £100bn over the period from 2022/23 to 2028/29. This means immigration actually boosts the UK’s economic health.
It is argued that the influx of migrants increases the strain on the already overloaded NHS. While we certainly need more medical staff, immigrants could actually help solve this problem.
Among people seeking asylum in the UK, about 1,200 medically qualified refugees are recorded on the British Medical Association’s database lists. For these professionals to work in the NHS, they may be contractually obliged to bring their training into line with UK medical criteria. Once they requalify, they may then be legally bound to work in the UK healthcare system until the costs have been recouped.
To enable a refugee doctor to work here costs about £25,000. Training a UK resident from the beginning costs from £200,000 to £250,000, an increase of 900% over the cost of using an already trained and qualified immigrant medical professional.
Seeking asylum is not illegal immigration
Many asylum seekers in the UK are thought of as illegal immigrants. International law, however, specifies that anyone has the right to apply for asylum in any country that has signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and to remain there until their claim has been processed. The Convention guarantees everybody the right to apply for asylum – it does not say they must apply to stay in the first country they reach. This means that there is no such thing as an ‘illegal’ or ‘bogus’ asylum seeker.
Where are refugees coming from?
All 10 of the countries which produce the most refugees commit, or are subjected to, appalling violations of human rights. A recent study showed that more than two-thirds of the refugees across the world came from just five countries: Venezuela (6.2 million), Syria (6 million), Afghanistan (5.8 million), Ukraine (5.1 million), and South Sudan (2.3 million). The 1951 Convention acknowledges that people fleeing persecution may have to escape by any means they can, in order to claim asylum in another country. No safe, legal framework exists which would allow refugees to come to the UK specifically to seek asylum.
One body of opinion advocates for refugees to be returned to France, the point from which many embarked on their boat crossing to the UK. A European regulation, part of the Dublin III Regulation, allows countries in the EU to return an adult asylum applicant to the first European country they reached. Since Brexit, the UK is no longer part of the European Union, so it can no longer benefit from this arrangement, irrespective of recent Franco-British bilateral provisions.
The real cost of refugees
Recent (unsubstantiated) social media claims on TikTok and Facebook proclaimed, without any proof, that the UK was spending £1bn a month to accommodate refugees. The actual cost is about one-thousandth of that figure. In 2024, Britain paid £108mn per month to house asylum seekers.
Once applicants have entered the complex UK asylum system, it is often very difficult for them to provide the evidence required to be granted protection. The Home Office can take months or even years to adjudicate an asylum case, and there is a growing backlog of cases. Despite these challenges, the majority of asylum claims are successful.
In the year ending June 2022, 76% of initial decisions resulted in a grant of asylum or other form of protection. Since 2005, most people recognised as refugees are only given permission to stay in the UK for five years. This makes it difficult for them to make decisions about their future, to find work and to make definite plans for their life in the UK.
The experience of being an incomer
I have, myself, learnt something of how it feels to be an incomer. I lived and worked in about 20 countries, sometimes over long periods. For decades, wherever I went, I was a foreigner. Sometimes, I did whatever jobs I could get, getting by somehow; at other times I lived in relative opulence, with a healthy sense of impostor syndrome. I lived in places which I loved and others which felt depressing.
There were times when I was treated with kindness and esteem, and times when unthinking local prejudice made me constantly feel that I was the enemy, not for what I might or might not have done, but for whatever I represented to them at the time. I didn’t try to be foreign – I integrated as best I could, and learned the languages properly, but it can be exhausting to feel that, for reasons you cannot control, you are irrevocably unwelcome.
Much of it was enjoyable and adventurous, but a bit more considerate curiosity and honest communication all round would certainly have made things easier. We (by which I mean both myself and the people of those places) could have tried dropping the hidden xenophobia, communicating openly, trusting, and listening to each other.
Preconceived ideas holding us back
What stopped us from doing that? Perhaps our preconceived ideas of what to expect from each other? Apparently, humans construct their world through the medium of how they anticipate that it will turn out to be, then mould their perceptions accordingly, in a kind of psychosocial feedback loop, which continuously confirms their misconceptions. I think we might do better to turn this around and start listening to each other, reacting honestly, and adjusting our expectations according to what we find out.
That might even help the way we deal with immigration. The habit of courteous curiosity could take us a long way.
