We learned yesterday that an estimated 641,000 people immigrated to Britain in 2014 – the highest ever annual figure. Earlier, a few people were hauled off in handcuffs by the border force for their alleged involvement in illegal immigration, with the TV cameras present. The television correspondents were shrewd enough to make the point that the pictures the Home Office laid on to illustrate their news packages on the migration statistics actually had no bearing on those figures, though they used the pictures anyway.

The same was true of much of the briefing ahead of the prime minister’s big immigration speech. That focused on the new government’s plans for yet more stringent crackdowns on illegal work, a tougher approach to deportation and further curbs on migrants’ access to benefits. In the speech itself, however, a substantial section was devoted to the real reason why immigration is booming – and has been for many years – the fact that this country continues to need and therefore to attract high levels of workers and foreign students.

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In all, 284,000 people immigrated for work in 2014, a rise of 70,000 on 2013. Given free movement within the EU, and Britain’s economic strength compared with many other European countries, it is not so surprising that the number of EU workers arriving continues to increase. But after much tightening of immigration rules by both the coalition and the Blair/Brown governments, it is quite difficult to obtain a work visa if you are from a non-EU country. Only the well-off, the highly skilled or those with shortage skills can apply, yet it seems that our economy still requires such people in substantial numbers – up to 68,000 last year, from 44,000 the year before – and so, sensibly, we allow them to come.

The last government also did much to curb abuse of the student visa system. While the number of foreign students is not back to its peak of around a quarter of a million in 2010 and 2011, the latest figures show numbers creeping close to 200,000 again. The big fall in recent years has been in overseas students coming to study in the non-university sector (particularly FE colleges and language schools). Numbers studying at universities have not dropped, showing how vital it is for the higher education sector’s finances that it recruits high-paying foreign students and that those students continue to regard studying here as prestigious and good for their career prospects.

But David Cameron and Theresa May seem determined to stop this tide of skilled and intelligent people coming to the UK, whatever its benefits. Indeed, the prime minister made “reducing the demand for skilled workers” one of the key planks of his future strategy – which was at least a recognition of what’s largely driving high immigration, even if it’s not obviously a sensible policy decision.

David Cameron and Theresa May seem determined to stop this tide of skilled and intelligent people coming to the UK

However, how exactly he is going to achieve it remains unclear. The prime minister highlighted increased apprenticeships to increase skills in the British-born workforce and, even more vaguely, getting the Migration Advisory Committee to “advise” on how the UK labour market can become less migrant dependent. It is, of course, a good thing if we can fill more jobs in this country with people born in this country, but the issue is a longstanding structural one and it is highly doubtful that whatever measures the government implements will have much impact within the lifetime of this parliament.

All of which means that Cameron would have been better advised to listen to the chorus of organisations – including thinktanks on the centre right and centre left, business bodies such as the Institute of Directors, and commentators in sympathetic newspapers – which are urging policies that focus on learning to live (and thrive) with the “steady state” of modern-day high-level migration, rather than chasing after the chimera of 1990s immigration levels.

It would be a bold move, a move away from the political orthodoxy of the past decade and seemingly at odds with strong public sentiment. Yet as recent polling has shown, even Conservative supporters draw sharp distinctions between low-skilled, welfare-dependent, irregular immigrants – whom they want to keep out – and high-skilled, contributing, rule-following immigrants – whom they would welcome. What politicians, left and right, need to do, therefore, is to step up efforts to inform the public that it is exactly that second category which predominates among immigrant numbers to the UK.

That would not mean denying that numbers are high by historical standards, but it would mean admitting to the public that a liberal country such as this one, which wants to remain open to the world, will find it difficult to reduce migration substantially if, as we should all hope, the economy remains relatively strong.

There is always a place for sensible reforms to the immigration system, both to tackle abuse and to avoid an over-dependency on migrants. But to suggest that migration is “uncontrolled”, as Cameron repeatedly did in his speech, is misleading and counterproductive, and to imply that we can’t manage current numbers is not borne out by the evidence. More help is certainly needed to help some communities and services negatively effected by migration spikes, but the way to do that is through such ideas as the new fund set up by the government, a welcome development which ministers should trumpet more.