They are not a burden on the NHS, but a vital part of how it functions.
By Ammad Butt
Claims that migrants are overwhelming Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) have become increasingly common in political debate.
Last week, Reform UK figures argued that rising migration is placing unsustainable pressure on GP services, citing figures that about 752,000 migrants joined GP registers last year.
However, the data used to support this claim is often misunderstood. The statistic refers to “Flag-4” GP registrations, a category that includes anyone whose previous address was outside the UK for more than three months.
That group does not only include new migrants but also returning British residents. In reality, the 752,000 registrations accounted for just over one in ten of the roughly 6.5 million new GP registrations last year.
What critics of migration frequently ignore is the central role migrants play in sustaining the NHS workforce. More than 40 percent of doctors licensed to practise in the UK qualified overseas, and international graduates now make up the majority of new entrants to the medical register.
The health system some politicians claim is being overwhelmed by migrants is, in fact, heavily dependent on them.
Anti-immigration voices have increasingly tied healthcare pressures to migration. Figures on the far right often claim the NHS is being “swamped by the rest of the world,” framing healthcare as another institution under threat.
Yet historically the NHS has always been intertwined with migration.
When the health service was created in 1948, many British doctors left to work in countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia.
Britain turned to its former colonies to fill the gap. By 1971, about 31 percent of NHS doctors in England had been born and trained overseas. Even politicians associated with strict immigration views supported overseas recruitment. In the early 1960s, junior doctors from India and Pakistan were widely credited with helping prevent the system from collapsing.
Migration has also shaped the NHS nursing workforce. Post-war Britain relied heavily on nurses from the Caribbean, Ireland and other parts of the Commonwealth. Their contribution helped build the health service that millions rely on today.
Despite this history, migrants are often blamed when the NHS struggles. During the 2010s, Conservative governments introduced the Immigration Health Surcharge, requiring migrants to pay additional fees to use the NHS even though many already contribute through income tax and national insurance.
The surcharge currently stands at more than £1,000 per adult each year, meaning migrants often pay significantly more into the system than they take out.
Blaming migrants has proved politically convenient. The NHS is a complex organisation facing many challenges, including staffing shortages, funding pressures and an ageing population that requires more care. Addressing these structural problems is difficult, whereas blaming immigration offers a simpler narrative.
Social media has further fuelled this perception. Images of crowded hospital waiting rooms are sometimes shared online with captions blaming “foreigners,” even though the patients may be British citizens. Visible ethnic diversity is often enough for some to assume immigration is responsible for long waiting times.
Yet research does not support that claim. Studies from the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government have found that areas with larger migrant populations do not experience longer NHS waiting times and sometimes record slightly shorter waits. Migrants also tend to be younger and healthier than the UK’s ageing population, meaning they generally use fewer healthcare services.
In British politics, debates about migration and the NHS frequently collide, creating an emotional issue that politicians can easily exploit. But the reality remains clear: the NHS has long depended on migrant workers, and many of the people blamed for straining the system are the very ones keeping it running.
Courtesy of Al Jazeera
Picture: NHS
