Shift in gender balance for those granted visas and refugee status – analysis

Men are expected to make up more grants for refugee status in the UK after ministers suspended the refugee family reunion visa route, according to new analysis.

The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory has published research looking at how immigration policies affect men and women differently, carried out through data and Freedom of Information requests.

Women and girls made up 92% of those being granted family reunion visas for refugees between 2010 and 2024, the report said.

Meanwhile, a rise in men and boys making up the main asylum applicants began when asylum seekers began arriving by small boats in 2018.

In 2024, men made up 71% of applicants, a drop from a peak of 80% in 2021.

Researcher Nuni Jorgensen suggested that suspending the family reunion visa could lead to more women attempting to come to the UK irregularly.

The Government suspended new applications to the existing refugee family reunion route in September, and plans to announce new rules to introduce by spring next year.

Dr Jorgensen said: “Women are much less likely to make small boat crossings or apply for asylum than men. They make up larger shares of people on humanitarian visas, and especially refugee family reunion.

“In the short run, the restriction on refugee family reunion is expected to shift the gender balance in these categories more towards men.

“In the long term, the impacts are less clear and will depend on whether the policy deters men from arriving (as the Government hopes it will) – or, on the contrary, encourage more women to arrive on unauthorised routes.”

The briefing, Gender and Migration in the UK, also found that grants of visas and refugee status were no longer made up of mainly women in 2023 and 2024, for the first time since 2016.

Instead of visas issued across multiple categories in 2024, 51% were given to men, and 49% to women.

The analysis said a key factor in the shift was the rise in male international students.

Before Brexit, women made up 54% of main student applicants, but after the split with the European Union female students were more likely to bring their partners.

When the government banned international students being able to bring their partners and children as dependants to the country in 2024, women as main applicants dropped to 46%.

Dr Jorgensen added: “Men and women face the same rules in the UK immigration system, but policies can affect them differently. While many factors drive student visa numbers, it appears that the ban on students’ dependants has had a larger impact on women than men across many nationalities.

“Similarly, the rise and then fall of both care worker visas and Ukraine visas affected the gender balance of UK migration because they were most often used by women.”

Between 2021 and 2024 women made up 69% of people on Ukraine scheme visas, and 71% of visas for partners of British citizens, according to the report.

Work visas depended on the type of job, such as seasonal work were 74% male visa holders, and health and social care visas for main applicants were 70% women.