‘Irregular migration’ isn’t a new term

A number of posts on social media have claimed that Labour has “renamed” or “redefined” illegal migration as “irregular migration”.

The claims were made in response to a graphic shared by the Home Office on X (formerly Twitter) last week, which states: “We are taking control of irregular migration.”

But “irregular migration” is not a new term. In fact, it was regularly used by the previous Conservative government, which in 2022 began publishing a dataset titled “irregular migration to the UK”.

It’s also not the case that the current government has stopped using the term “illegal migration”, as the social media posts appear to suggest. For example, the term was used in a 28 July press release about the Prime Minister meeting the Rwandan president and five times in an 18 July press release headlined “UK steps up work to reduce illegal migration”.

What does ‘irregular migration’ mean?

The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory states: “There is no legal nor broadly accepted definition of an ‘irregular migrant’, though the term is commonly used to refer to people who are in the UK without the legal right to be so.”

This is broadly the same definition as “illegal migration”, though it’s worth noting that some bodies, such as the Council of Europe, apply the two terms in slightly different ways.

The Home Office publishes data on four categories of “irregular migration”: small boat arrivals, inadequately documented air arrivals, recorded detections at UK ports and recorded detections inside the UK.

It’s worth noting some people may arrive in the UK via regular means, and subsequently become an irregular migrant (for example, by overstaying a visa). Similarly some may arrive as an irregular migrant and subsequently gain the right to stay in the UK legally (for example, through a successful asylum claim).

Has there been a change in tone under Labour?

A number of Conservative politicians, including the leadership candidates James Cleverly MP, Robert Jenrick MP and Priti Patel MP, have also commented on the Home Office graphic on social media, suggesting it shows Labour is “changing” how it refers to migrants.

While it’s clear “irregular migration” is a term that the Home Office has used previously, and the government also hasn’t stopped using the term “illegal migration”, assessing whether there’s been a change in tone in some communications since Labour came into government is more difficult.

For example, when we checked text and graphics posted on the Home Office X account between 1 March 2024 and 4 July 2024, we found eight mentions of “illegal” migrants or migration but no mentions of “irregular” migration. 

Labour however appears to have denied there has been a change, reportedly telling the Telegraph: “Irregular migration has always been used by the Home Office. It’s been the standard terminology used in all its datasets. It’s just standard terminology the department has always used.”

Mr Jenrick himself has previously used the term “irregular migration” in the House of Commons.

We’ve contacted Mr Cleverly, Mr Jenrick and Ms Patel for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.