Government aims to significantly reduce immigration levels
Summary
The Government intends to take control of immigration levels by lowering those entering the UK who are putting unacceptable pressure on public services and hindering societal economic growth.
The Home Affairs Committee reports on the first step to reducing immigration into the UK in ‘Immigration Cap’ (HC 361) by placing a cap on non-European Economic Area (EEA) migrants entering the country. This cap on new non-EEA economic migrants acts as an interim to the permanent cap which will be implemented from April 2011.
This is currently controlled through the points based system (PBS) under which those wishing to work or study in the UK must gain points for certain attributes in order to qualify for entry.
The PBS consists of five tiers:
- Highly-skilled migrants
- Skilled workers with a job offer
- Low skilled workers (indefinitely suspended)
- Students
- Temporary Workers and Youth Mobility (primarily non-economic routes).
The impact a cap would have on the ability of UK business and industries to recruit the skills and staff they require is a key area of discussion for the Committee.
Overall, the Committee believes a cap would make little difference to immigration unless it was set at virtually zero.
There is a risk that a permanent cap could:
- hamper businesses;
- prevent top-class international professionals from coming to the UK; and
- damage the UK's ability to recruit the most distinguished scientists into universities.
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