We’ve been waiting until the dust settled from the recent British Election before we reported on any far reaching changes to the UK immigration system. Today, the new UK Coalition Government released it’s full plans for it’s time in power and they’ve also released the details of their immigrations plans.
First off, nothing is going to change right now. So, if you are in a position to apply for a UK visa now or in the next couple months – get going and you can get in before there are any major changes.
If your plans are more long term, you may run into some problems.
Here’s the official immigration plan from the Coalition Government Programme Document:
The Government believes that immigration has enriched our culture and strengthened our economy, but that it must be controlled so that people have confidence in the system. We also recognise that to ensure cohesion and protect our public services, we need to introduce a cap on immigration and reduce the number of non- EU immigrants.
- We will introduce an annual limit on the number of non-EU economic migrants admitted into the UK to live and work. We will consider jointly the mechanism for implementing the limit.
- We will end the detention of children for immigration purposes.
- We will create a dedicated Border Police Force, as part of a refocused Serious Organised Crime Agency, to enhance national security, improve immigration controls and crack down on the trafficking of people, weapons and drugs. We will work with police forces to strengthen arrangements to deal with serious crime and other cross-boundary policing challenges, and extend collaboration between forces to deliver better value for money.
- We support E-borders and will reintroduce exit checks.
- We will apply transitional controls as a matter of course in the future for all new EU Member States.
- We will introduce new measures to minimise abuse of the immigration system, for example via student routes, and will tackle human trafficking as a priority.
- We will explore new ways to improve the current asylum system to speed up the processing of applications.
The biggest issue raised in their plans is the cap on Non-EU migration. That’s what will affect Americans and anyone else seeking to live and work in the UK.
Let’s examine the language of that though, “We will consider jointly the mechanism for implementing the limit.” That’s the most encouraging statement in the document. Basically they don’t have know if they can even institute a cap and how they would go about it. They need to figure it out.
That will take time.
I think we can rely on the expediency of the British Civil Service to make sure that it takes quite some time before they are able to implement a cap. Even then, it may not even prove feasible.
Mark Easton from his UK Blog made a great point today:
At the moment, the only non-EU economic migrants admitted into the UK are those with enormous wealth, enormous brains or with specific skills in areas where Britain has an identified shortage.
As revealed on this blog, official data show that the number of non-EU economic migrants employed in the UK is falling – down 76,000 last year compared with the year before. Some sectors of the economy are already complaining that they cannot fill key vacancies.
The cap could only apply to Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the existing points-based system, since those are the only two categories under which migrant workers from outside the EU can come to the UK.
Tier 1 is for “Highly skilled workers, investors and entrepreneurs”. It is hard to imagine that these are the kind of immigrants the UK would want to ban.
Tier 2 covers “Sponsored skilled workers”, mostly defined as “people coming to the UK with a skilled job offer to fill a gap in the workforce that cannot be filled by a settled worker”. Again, it is difficult to conceive how, in the short-term, stopping these individuals would be good for Britain.
That is very encouraging indeed. Non-EU migration is so small that it may not even be worth bothering implementing a cap. Even if the new British Government moves forward with trying to put a cap into practice – it could be quite some time until they are able to.
So, our recommendation is that if you want to move to the UK to live and work under a Tier 1 or Tier 2 visa – finalize your plans and get moving before the cap is put into place.
Unfortunately, we have a long timescale on our plans that can’t really be adjusted so we may fall victim to the cap ourselves – which may delay or plans even further. It sort of all depends on how quickly they do it. Hopefully it will take a couple years.
Watch this space – as soon as we know anything regarding the new UK immigration policies, we’ll post about it.
About jonathan
British Pound Exchange Rate
Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dreams of traveling to the UK whenever we want a reality.
As pointed out in the article above, the (legal) non-EU immigration to the UK is already so controlled and so minimal that I highly doubt much is going to change. They will put token policies in place, change a little wording here and there but it is only to placate all of the anti-immigration sentiment here in the UK. People over here are really upset about EU migrant workers and illegal immigration and there is not a whole lot that can be done about that at this point. Until they figure out how to cap/prevent those issues, they’ll focus on a rhetoric of “bringing major change” to the area of least importance. Because it’s the only one they can control. That said, I don’t think (and I sure hope) much will change. And if it does, it’s going to take awhile. Because they can placate the anti-immigration public over here by at least saying they are working on it.
I think something is being left out here. That are talking about people who will be coming in. The major problem is about those here already. Each time we read the budget, we do not budget for the illegals therefore the budget is flawed as it is because they are here already using the services but we never account for them.
This government needs to first deal with those here then make a decision about those coming in
Short of leaving the EU, there is no way to cap internal EU migration*. The problem is, those who are most concerned about immigration are concerned by the EU immigrants, and much less by the non-EU immigration.
To migrate to the UK from another EU country, you just need proof of identity. That’s it. It’s pretty easy – I’ve done it in the other direction (I’m a Brit living in France).
During the boom years, there was a lot of immigration from countries like Poland. Now that things have got worse, a lot of those immigrants have left again.
*Relatively rich EU countries such as the UK and France can place caps on immigration from relatively poor new EU countries such as Romania, but only for the first few years after the membership of the country. The reasoning behind this is that on the day that a country such as Romania joins the EU, the whole population otherwise immediately has the right to move to any other country, thus overwhelming things in the new host country.
Thanks for this update, Jonathan! We’re in the same boat as you – my husband is working on his MBA in order to gain more points towards a visa. He won’t be finished with that until next year, plus there’s the time spent looking for a job/getting the visa. We shall see how things go.
Immigration of skilled workers from non EU countries is already strictly enforced.These people contribute to society and have skills,education and money.They must show means of support,yet we cap them.
Non EU students pay double university fees and pay for themselves and their own accomadation,so lets cap them,why not.
Asylumseekers can be and are bogus.They are usually economic immigrants using asylum laws.They recieve benefits,housing and full permission for all their extended family to enter the UK.Costing us billions and we say lets leave the door wide open.
Makes as much sense as a whole in the head.
@tom we agree that non EU immigration is already strictly enforced; Nick Clegg did mention about it indirectly in the television debates. It would be interesting to see what changes are actually made in the near future by the coalition!
well , ofcourse deport all illegals and put a cap on immigration. that will work.
obviously they cant do anything abt the 80%, and the british public dont seem to be bothered by that, i definitely sense a race prejudice here.
80% afterall, they’re white, so no difference.
i guess i have no right, despite having an Msc in mol med from a uk uni , and being illegal recently, to stay here anymore. fair enough i have successfully emigrated to calgary on a package of $43000 a year.i am happy.
if any illegal or skilled migrant who intends to stay in the uk, then plz take my advice, change your minds, come to canada. you’re gonna be valued much more, and for the vast illegals who havent had the chance like me to gain some skill, well …..i dont know what to say. sorry. you guys are hard working people, and I dont blame you for nothing.
I have sold my lands and my business in mauritius to fund my wife education here in the UK. Today our visa has been refused, and we are waiting since a yr and a half for a reply. we dont want to go back to mauritius, i have nothing left, whatever i had, i have given it to this country. All want today is to stay here and be able to work and pay my taxes.