Smarter immigration controls needed says Minister Damian Green
Speaking to the Royal Commonwealth Society this evening, the UK Immigration Minister, Damian Green, will confirm that the government will look at all routes into the UK and set new rules, the Home Office announced today.
Damian Green will say that an annual limit on workers from outside the EU alone is not enough to reduce net migration levels to tens of thousands.
Brightest and best
Forthcoming reviews will therefore:
- look at who is qualifying both in the work and study categories, to make sure the brightest and best are being attracted to the UK
- study why those who come here on routes which do not lead to settlement find it easy to change routes and permanently settle here
- ensure a steady downward pressure on every route to long-term immigration
The minister believes that the current Points Based System for immigration is not yet properly controlling numbers of people coming to the UK and that an effective system needs to be found.
New Home Office research ‘The Migrant Journey’ reveals rising student levels
Mr Green will also discuss new research entitled The Migrant Journey published today. It looks at people coming to the UK since 2004 under all immigration routes apart from those making short-term visits. It then tracks their immigration status each year up to 2009.
It found that the largest group of visas granted in 2004 were to students. Of 186,000 students granted visas, more than a fifth of those were still in the UK five years later.
He will go on to explain that the number of foreign students in the UK is rising. In the year to June 2010, more than 320,000 visas were issued to students and their dependants visiting for more than six months.
The minister believes these levels are unsustainable, and will say that this will be looked at as priority.
Alongside this, the government will also look at work routes that lead to citizenship. The research shows that of those obtaining a right to work in 2004, visas totalling around 105,000, two fifths of this group were still in the UK in 2009. Source: Home Office
Home Office
See also:
Minister to announce crackdown on student visa numbers today
Reader Comments
What the Minister and the Government overall need to be looking at are the cuts they have made on the NHS Hospitals by not allowing SKILLED workers, i.e. Doctors, Nurses and other skilled health professionals from non EU countries into the UK who the NHS heavily rely on to resource it. It is a sad fact that we don’t have enough people with the requisite level of experience or skills that we have to go abroad.
There has been a massive knee jerk reaction to making cuts in Immigration by cutting down the number of Certificates of Sponsorship required by an Employer who wishes to employer a skilled worker from overseas. As the Minister has said, we don’t need overseas workers to come in to the country to take on jobs that our own residents could do.
In the case of qualified and experienced Nurses and Doctors within the NHS, this has been done with no consultatation with the Hospitals on the impact this could and has had on them and the service they need to provide to their patients.
By not consulting the Trusts about what their requirements are, what recruitment they have put in place to satisfy levels of patient care (and therefore detrimental to what the NHS is supposed to stand for)and where their staffing levels are low the UK Government and Border Agency are putting the NHS into serious jeopardy.
Many NHS Trusts have gone through a recruitment process, offered opportunities to Nurses from overseas as they have not been able to source Nurses with the required experience in the UK or EU, only to now be told they will not be granted the requisite Certificate of Sponsorship to allow that Nurse to come to the UK to work.
This needs to be sorted out – and quickly. The NHS is spending millions of extra pounds on Agency and Bank staff rather than on Permanent Experienced Staff.
I have always upheld that when you need it the NHS is there for you, but I seriously hope I don’t get ill and need to test a system that is so short of resources.
I like smarter immigration controls needed.
I am not EU citizen as most of people came to the UK. I see lots people who use law do bad things, claim benefit, making money…it’s making the country get worse. Specially for those who are from Eu countries making benefit from immigration matters and from Gov.
High qualification people with good skills can live anywhere without limitation… I hope the law can make thing better in clever ways… NHS needs good DRs, nurses but need to reduce patients who get benefit from Gov (Tax Payers Pockets).