These are the key policies in the Immigration White Paper:
- Migrants will need to wait 10 years rather than five to apply for settlement or citizenship, although workers who significantly contribute to society, such as nurses, doctors and engineers, could be fast-tracked. This will lead to 18,000 fewer arrivals, the Home Office believes.
- Increasing the threshold for the Skilled Worker Visa to graduate-level roles. Officials believe this will prevent migrants from moving to Britain for around 180 occupations. This change alone is predicted to lead to 39,000 fewer migrants coming to the UK.
- Raising the Immigration Skills Charge by 32% to raise funds to train British workers.
- Sectors which hire large numbers of migrant workers will be ordered to draw up workforce strategies to end their reliance on cheap foreign labour.
- And they will only be able to hire from abroad if there “have been on long term shortages, on a time limited basis”.
- Social care visas will also be closed to new applicants, after years of the route being treated as a backdoor route into Britain.
- A higher standard of English will be required across all immigration routes, including, for the first time, adult dependents required to display a basic understanding of the language. This could lead to 6,000 fewer arrivals.
- Stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students and a reduction in the time graduates can remain in the UK after their studies from two years to 18 months.
- Digital identity documents will also be issued to every overseas arrival, replacing Biometric Resident Permit cards. This, officials believe, will allow the Home Office to monitor those overstaying their visas and breaking the law. The eVisa allows “all immigration status holders access to their data and to share information about their permissions with employers, landlords and others”. This could then be used to find those abusing the system.
- Yvette Cooper wants to “tighten” up asylum rules to prevent migrants using human rights laws to avoid deportation, stay in the UK and bolster their claims to remain.
- New restrictions are set to be introduced when asylum seekers file a claim when “conditions in their home country have not materially changed”. This will make it much harder for a migrant to lodge a successful claim.
Read the full breakdown here.
