cond, there is immigration from outside the EU. People can seek to come here for work, as a visitor, or as a student. Each category requires a visa which can be renewed, but the assumption is that it is time-limited. For longer residence someone will have to apply for indefinite right to remain which can then lead to nationality and citizenship. There are also relationship applications, usually around the spouse, but can involve children or other close relatives.

Immigration is beneficial to the economy because new arrivals are likely to be of working age and contribute in taxes, the Treasury's independent advisers have said.

Recent immigrants were 45% less likely to receive state benefits or tax credits than people native to the UK and 3% less likely to live in social housing, says the report written by Professor Christian Dustmann and Dr Tommaso Frattini.

1 People from European Economic Area countries have been the most likely to make a positive contribution, paying about 34% more in taxes than they received in benefits over the 10 years from 2001 to 2011, according to the findings from University College London's migration research unit. Other immigrants paid about 2% more than they received.

Dustmann said: "Our research shows that in contrast with most other European countries, the UK attracts highly educated and skilled immigrants from within the EEA as well as from outside. What’s more, immigrants who arrived since 2000 have made a very sizeable net fiscal