Britain approved the issuing of citizenship to more migrants in the year 2012 than among any other nation in the European Union. This revelation was based on official figures that have recently been released. In the records, it was revealed that United Kingdom passports were given to 193,900 people during the course of that year. This figure translated to about a quarter of all the European Union passports that were approved in all of the entire EU member states. Of those member states, the countries that had the highest share of these new passport issues were India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and the Philippines. They respectively accounted for 14.6 percent, .5 percent, 4.6 percent, and 4.2 percent respectively.

As stated by the Home Office, the British government insists that the nationality of Britain was a privilege and should not be viewed by any applicant as a right. They were blaming the figures recently released on immigration levels which have not been properly controlled nor monitored during the immediate past Labour government.

According to the European Union’s office of statistics Eurostat, out of the entire membership of the European Union which issued new citizenships to as many as 818,000 people, about seventy five percent were issued in only six countries. The six countries were Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Sweden. Each of these six countries issued 23.7 percent, 14 percent, 11.7 percent, 11.5 percent, 8 percent, and 6.1 percent of those new citizenships respectively.

The EU member state with the highest number of new citizens for its population size was Luxembourg where out of every 1,000 residents, 8.7 percent were new citizens. The deputy director of the Oxford University’s Migration Observatory Carlos Vargas – Silva was quoted as telling The Times that in regards to people being issued with the EU citizenship, the clear leader was the United Kingdom. The reason why this was occurring was due to the Commonwealth. He stated that in the United Kingdom there was immigration from countries of the Commonwealth into the United Kingdom where citizens come to stay and reside with families and networks that are well established. This is why they wanted to be given citizenship.

Among the new citizens the average age was 31 years. Of this number, over thirty percent were aged 25 and lower.
A spokesman for the Home Office had stated that it was a privilege and not a right to be granted and possess the British citizenship. As a result, the British government expected that anyone who desired to make a settlement in the UK must be willing and able to show that they are capable of societal integration.

The British government had made the obtaining of nationality of the British nation harder and all who wished to apply for it had to sit for and excel in the new, amended Life in the UK assessment. They were also expected to possess the qualification in listening and speaking English Language.
The huge numbers of applications in the year 2012 had been as a result of the migration levels which were not controlled in the years prior to 2010. Presently, there was now reduction and control in immigration, the establishment of a system of immigration which was in fairness to British nationals and legal migrants and difficult for those who choose to ridicule the system or break the law.