UK Immigration Reaches Record Level

The number of people arriving in Britain exceeded the number leaving by 330,000 for the 12 months through March, according to official data released Thursday. The majority of those arriving came to work or study, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The figures come at a time of heightened unease over immigration in Britain and the wider European Union, which is struggling to cope with one of the largest waves of migration in decades.

The UK has seen an increase in the numbers of those seeking asylum. The figures released Thursday showed a 10% increase in the number of asylum applications for the year that ended in June to 25,771. Still, that level remains well below the peak Britain saw in 2002 of more than 80,000.

The latest figures show a large increase in net migration by other EU citizens to the UK, up 53,000 to 183,000 for the year ended in March.

Those figures are likely to fan debate in Britain about its continued membership of the EU.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has made immigration a central part of a pledge to reshape the UK’s ties with the EU. He and his governing Conservative Party were elected for a second term in office in May on a platform that included a promise to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU and hold a referendum by the end of 2017 on whether the UK should exit.

The prime minister has said he wants Britain to stay in the EU, the largest market for British goods and services, but only under new terms. Among his demands is limiting the numbers of European citizens moving to Britain, but that has prompted some in Europe to warn Mr. Cameron that the principle of free movement of people and labor within the EU is nonnegotiable.

Cameron has long promised to reduce migration flows to the UK to below 100,000, a pledge he has acknowledged he has failed to meet.