• It focuses on preventing and tackling abuse, promoting integration and reducing burdens on the taxpayer. It seeks to deliver better migration, which is fair to applicants, local communities and the taxpayer.
• There has been a slight decrease in net family migration of non-European Union nationals since 2006, but family migration still accounted for approximately 17 per cent of all non-EU immigration in the year to September 2010.1
• The paper concentrates on the „family route‟: those non-European Economic Area (EEA)2 nationals entering, remaining in or settling in the UK on the basis of a relationship with a British citizen or a person settled in the UK. This includes fiancé(e)s, proposed civil partners, spouses, civil partners, or unmarried or same-sex partners, dependent children and adult and elderly dependent relatives.
• But the paper also looks more widely at all forms of family migration, including the family members of those working or studying in the UK under the points-based system (where earlier consultations have already announced some changes for dependants), refugee family reunion, and family visitors.

Key statistics include:3
o In 2010, family migration with a route to settlement in the UK was 114,700.4 This includes the „family route‟ (48,900).5 It also includes the dependants of skilled workers under Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the points-based system and equivalents (45,200), dependants joining or accompanying non-points-based system and pre-points-based system migrants (15,400),6 300 dependants of domestic workers in private households, and 4,900 people granted a family reunion visa to join a refugee in the UK.
o In 2010, family migration without a route to settlement in the UK was 33,000.7 This includes the dependants of Tier 4 (students) of the points-based system (31,800) and Tier 5 and other temporary workers.
o In 2010, 350,300 family visit visas were granted for the purpose of visiting family in the UK.

Rt Hon Theresa May MP, Home Secretary and minister for women and equalities said;

This government is determined to bring immigration back to sustainable levels and to bring a sense of fairness back to our immigration system.
We have already capped the number of economic migrants coming to the UK from outside the European Economic Area. We have announced plans to reform student visas and to clamp down on bogus colleges. We also recently launched a consultation aimed at breaking the link between temporary migration and permanent settlement. As a result of our policies we anticipate net migration will be in the tens of thousands in future.
But we have been clear that we will take action across all the routes of entry to the UK, so we must also take action on the family migration route. In the year to September 2010 family migration accounted for around 17 per cent of non-EU immigration to the UK. That is around 53,000 people.
Of course, those with a legitimate right to come here must still be able to do so. But we need to crack down on abuse of the family route and to tighten up the system.
The key themes to our approach are stopping abuse, promoting integration and reducing the burden on the taxpayer.
Families are the bedrock of society. Family migration must be based on a real and continuing relationship, not a marriage of convenience or a marriage that is forced or is a sham. It is obvious that British citizens and those settled here should be able to marry or enter into a civil partnership with whomever they choose. But if they want to establish their family life in the UK, rather than overseas, then their spouse or partner must have a genuine attachment to the UK, be able to speak English, and integrate into our society, and they must not be a burden on the taxpayer. Families should be able to manage their own lives. If a British citizen or a person settled here cannot support their foreign spouse or partner, then they cannot expect the taxpayer to do it for them.