As has been pointed out before.
Mass immigration under the Cons was a ponzi scheme.
They brought immigrants in to fill supposed shortages in the Labour Market, these new migrants just created more demand because the immigrants themselves need housing, NHS, food ect.
This means more migrants are needed to service the demands created by the original migrants.
Almost 1 million migrants in a single year, how many houses are required to house them.
It's irrelevant who creates the optics. The small boat issue is what a lot of people base their concerns on regarding immigration. If the issue was largely resolved, although the numbers of people coming in might not actually decrease that much, it would help take some of the heat out of the issue.
The visa entries are set to fall again due to changes in the rules. It seems to apply when someone tries to renew their visa so the drop is not immediate. Tory did mention voting for set numbers of each category each year but not implemented as far as I am aware.