Invisible Giants: UK’s Legal Migrants Speak Out as Backbone of NHS, Economy and Education

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In a powerful LinkedIn post that is quickly going viral, Nigerian-born education leader and CEO of MSBM UK, Tolulope Ariyibi-Oke, makes a bold and unapologetic statement: legal migrants are not just contributors to the UK they are its invisible engine. From NHS wards to classrooms, from construction sites to research labs, they are “everywhere,” yet often ignored, misrepresented, or underappreciated.

Ariyibi-Oke’s post passionately outlines the reality that more than 3.6 million legal migrants arrived in the UK between 2020 and 2024 through official channels. Many paid thousands of pounds in visa fees, health surcharges, and university tuition injecting between £10 billion and £12 billion into the UK economy before earning their first paycheque. International students alone contributed an estimated £44 billion in tuition fees over four years, propping up an education sector that would otherwise be in crisis. Despite being ineligible for most benefits, these migrants have collectively paid over £60 billion in direct taxes, keeping vital services like the NHS and transport afloat.

Yet, despite these staggering contributions, the dominant narrative continues to paint migrants as a burden. Ariyibi-Oke highlights the racial and class biases hidden in language: while a white American in Kensington is called an “expat,” a Nigerian engineer in Leeds is an “immigrant.” This, she says, is not about legal status, but perception one shaped by race, origin, and social class.

Her message is not one of complaint, but of clarity. “We’re not asking for pity,” she writes. “We’re asking for truth.” That truth includes recognising that without these legal migrants, many sectors of the UK would collapse. Hospitals would lose staff, universities would go bankrupt, and taxes would rise to make up for the shortfall in contributions.

Ariyibi-Oke’s post has sparked a wider conversation, echoed by influential figures like Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, who described it as “brilliant” and a reminder that many of these migrants still think of home and the possibility of returning to build it.

The post resonates because it humanises a demographic often discussed only in numbers or policy terms. It challenges the UK to confront not just its immigration system, but the stories it tells about who belongs, who contributes, and who gets to be seen. In her words, the migrants are not hiding—they are holding up the system. And it’s time the country acknowledged it.