Indian students and workers are now the biggest group of visa-holders leaving the UK, as new estimates reveal a steep decline in overall net migration. UK universities also recorded an 11% drop in Indian student enrolments following tighter visa regulations.
According to the Office for National Statistics, net migration plunged to 204,000 in the year to June 2025, a 69% fall from 649,000, and a sharp reversal from the post-pandemic peak of 944,000 in March 2023. Immigration during the same period totalled just under 900,000, a reduction of 400,000, while 693,000 people left the country, 43,000 more than the previous year. The outflow included approximately 70,000 EU nationals and 109,000 British citizens, continuing long-term patterns seen after Brexit.
Foreign doctors are also leaving the UK in growing numbers, warning that stricter visa rules are leaving them unable to secure work despite completing their training.
At the same time, long-term immigration by asylum seekers rose to 96,000, making up 11% of all arrivals, double the 2019 share. Home Office data shows 36,273 asylum seekers were housed in hotels at the end of September 2025, up 13% since June, prompting plans to relocate 900 men to barracks in Scotland and southern England.
Irregular entries reached 51,000, with 46,000, nearly nine in ten, crossing by small boat, led by nationals from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and Somalia, reflecting asylum’s growing share in UK migration.
Amid these shifts, healthcare leaders warn the system cannot afford further workforce loss. The Royal College of General Practitioners has urged reforms to help international medical graduates secure roles in the NHS, noting the contradiction between tightening pathways for skilled doctors.
Restrictions push skilled doctors out
Many international medical graduates (IMGs) finish UK GP specialty training only to face regulatory hurdles, as they must find a practice with a sponsorship licence to remain in the NHS.
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has urged Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to allow overseas GPs to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) immediately after completing their three-year GP training, rather than waiting for the current five-year minimum.
Surveys show 61% of GPs and GP registrars may leave the UK if job barriers persist, while 71% report difficulty finding a sponsoring practice. Currently, only 29% of GP surgeries offer visa sponsorship. Patient demand, however, has surged, there are just 462 more GPs than in 2019 despite 3.7 million additional registered patients, and training a GP takes at least 10 years, leaving a critical workforce gap.
Indian nationals form the largest group of overseas clinicians in the NHS workforce, with over 60,000 employed as of June 2023, including more than 10,000 doctors and nearly 32,000 nurses. Right now, many skilled professionals from other ethnic backgrounds are being forced out, and if Indian clinicians face a similar path, the imbalance could worsen. With one-third of UK-trained medical graduates already leaving the country, restrictive immigration and sponsorship hurdles risk pushing out the very doctors the system urgently needs, making the situation dire.
However, asylum seekers now account for nearly half of net migration to the UK. Despite Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to end the use of hotels for housing, the number of asylum seekers in temporary hotel accommodation has continued to rise. Office for National Statistics data show that while all other major immigration categories have declined, arrivals of asylum seekers have increased.
Long-term immigration of asylum seekers reached 96,000 in the year to June 2025, double the share in 2019, and the number housed in hotels rose to 36,273 by September 2025. More than half of asylum arrivals entered the UK illegally, including 45,000 on small boats and 12,000 in lorries, while many others claimed asylum after arriving on visas.
This raises a pressing question: how can the UK’s healthcare and public services cope when the system is losing skilled professionals, while simultaneously absorbing a growing number of asylum seekers? Is it fair or sustainable to push out the very doctors needed to support a system under increasing strain?
Indian students fuel largest non-EU departures
Indian nationals recorded the highest departures from the UK in the year ending June 2025, with 74,000 leaving in total, including 45,000 on study visas, 22,000 on work visas, and 7,000 on other visa routes.
Chinese nationals followed with 42,000 exits. The Office for National Statistics confirmed that Indian nationals were the largest non-EU group emigrating, a trend largely driven by former international students.
Despite high outflows, Indians also remained the biggest arrivals. Around 90,000 study visas and 46,000 work visas were granted to Indian citizens. It has been noted that Indian, Pakistani, Chinese and Nigerian nationals continue to rank among the top five non-EU groups entering the UK, with emigration growth primarily linked to those who originally arrived on study-related visas.
Policy uncertainty has also grown for prospective students, amid a government review of the Graduate Route post-study work visa. While no final law has been passed, ministers have signalled possible tighter limits on duration and eligibility from 2025–26. Employers and London business groups have warned that reducing post-study work access could weaken the UK’s talent pipeline and harm competitiveness, particularly in tech, finance and research, as labour shortages persist.
Speaking to Asian Voice, Professor Jeevan R Sharma, Chair of South Asia and International Development at the University of Edinburgh said, “I think Indian students are leaving the UK in larger numbers than previously due to increasingly restrictive immigration policy and more critically the public discourse in the UK has become more anti-immigrants. Most students work as part time low paid workers in restaurants, delivery platforms, small shops, old age care and supermarkets so those businesses will feel shortage of workers.”
“Most Indian students would have spent a large amount of money to come to the UK as fees and living expenses are quite high plus NHS surcharge, visa fee plus other expenses like travel etc. Most take educational loans and expect to earn a bit of money to pay back the loan, which is becoming increasingly difficult. The route to permanent settlement or even to a work visa is becoming more difficult so it makes no economic sense for most plus the anti immigration discourse just makes them feel that the UK does not hold a future for them,” he added.
Sunder Katwala, Director of independent thinktank British Future, said, "After record-high immigration to the UK following the Covid pandemic, net migration has sharply fallen in 2024 and 2025, though the UK still saw 205,000 more arrivals than departures.
"Indian students now make up the biggest group leaving, largely because they were also the biggest group arriving three years earlier. Around four in ten have stayed on after finishing their studies; the rest never intended to remain. Over this period, one in four international students coming to the UK has been from India.
"This government, like its predecessor, had doubts about the pace of growth, seeing some of this motivated more by work rights than study opportunities. It has kept the post-study work visa but cut its length from two years to 18 months and removed the option to bring dependants. A new £925 annual levy on international students is also on the way, effectively an 8% surcharge on the cheapest £11,000 courses, and around 4–5% on average-priced degrees. This will make the lowest-cost courses harder to sustain.
"Future student migration will hinge on unpredictable global shifts, including how attractive competitor destinations become, including Donald Trump's America. After an unprecedented surge and correction, UK policy and student flows may now settle into a steadier pattern, at least until 2029."
