The figures for migration in July 2008 released on Thursday confirm that the firming of the net migration inflow since February has continued.

The annual net inflow was 4,700 permanent and long-term migrants in the year to June 2008, and this has increased to 5,200 for year to July 2008.

The strong and steady net inflow of over 17,000 people from Europe, America and southern Africa had another small increase.

The net inflow from Asia in the last twelve months has increased further to about 15,600 in year to July 2008. These increases in the net flows are mostly driven by increasing arrivals rather than reduced departures.

An interesting sign in the Asian arrivals is that India with 5,400 arrivals in twelve months has passed China with 4,800 as the main source country in Asia. Migration from the Philippines has also increased and in fact there is increasing diversification of source countries around the world regions.

The continued strengthening of arrivals in the seasonally adjusted data indicates that the net inflow could well be over 9,000 per annum by the year ending November 2008, and back to a healthy net inflow of 10,000 per annum for calendar 2008.