New report shows that the UK is losing its highest-paid migrants – and the lowest paid are staying put
Key Points
- A new Migration Advisory Committee report finds the UK retains its lowest-paid foreign workers and loses its highest earners on the Skilled Worker route
- Migrants earning under £40,000 at entry have the highest stay rates; those on £125,000 or more have the lowest
- Average salary at entry was £94,400 for migrants who had left within five years, compared with £70,900 for those who remained
- Care workers and nurses have the highest occupational stay rates, with 94% of nurses still in the UK after five years
- The findings reduce the projected fiscal benefit of the Skilled Worker route compared with earlier MAC modelling
The UK is losing its highest-paid foreign workers and keeping its lowest-paid ones, a new Migration Advisory Committee report has found.
Migrants on Skilled Worker visas earning under £40,000 at entry are the most likely group to still hold valid UK immigration status five years after arrival, while those earning more than £125,000 are among the most likely to leave.
Average annual salary at entry for migrants who had left the UK by the five-year mark was £94,400, compared with £70,900 for those who remained.
The pattern is consistent across the 2014 to 2019 cohort, when migrants entering above the £40,000 threshold faced lower odds of remaining in the UK across every higher salary band.
The Migration Advisory Committee, the independent body that advises government on migration policy, said the findings have direct consequences for the Treasury’s fiscal accounting of the visa route.
The committee published lifetime fiscal estimates for Skilled Worker visa holders in 2025, but at that point did not have access to data on how stay rates vary by occupation and initial earnings.
Taking into account that low earners and care workers are more likely to stay in the UK for longer reduces the projected fiscal benefit of the route relative to the same workers having shorter stay durations.
Care workers and home carers, added to the Skilled Worker route in 2022, were found to have the highest stay rates among common occupations alongside nurses, with 94% of nurses still in the UK five years after their first visa.
The committee has previously estimated that care workers have a negative lifetime fiscal impact at the individual level, meaning their stronger retention amplifies the fiscal cost of that cohort.
Migrants in the £125,000+ salary band were also significantly more likely to be issued five-year initial visas, with 35% receiving them compared with 12% of those earning less than £75,000.
The committee noted this structural difference likely masks the true scale of departures among top earners, since the analysis treats migrants as having left only when their visa expires.
The findings are unlikely to change the overall picture that the Skilled Worker route is, on average, significantly fiscally positive for those entering on salaries at or above current Immigration Rules thresholds, the committee said.
Accounting for differential stay rates will allow more refined fiscal estimates for specific groups in future. The report covers 916,000 unique migrant journeys recorded between 2014 and 2024.
