Foreign workers could be barred from entering UK - Yay or Nay
Foreign workers could be barred from entering UK
Jacqui Smith's aim 'to put British workers first' reflects impact of economic downturn
Alan Travis
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 22 February 2009 13.33 GMT
Article history
Protesters outside Staythorpe power station, near Newark, Nottinghamshire, earlier this month. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA
New measures to bar tens of thousands of foreign workers from outside Europe coming to work in Britain as the recession bites deeper were outlined by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, today.
The package includes possible moves to prevent the families of skilled migrants working in Britain and restricting skilled migrants to taking jobs only in occupations with shortages.
It represents a significant tightening of the new Australian-style points-based immigration system only four months after its introduction last November in the face of mounting "British jobs for British workers" protests and fears that the far-right British National Party, will win seats for the first time in June's European elections.
The government has already banned the legal movement of unskilled economic migrants from outside Europe to Britain and the package outlined by the home secretary represents the first move to cut the number skilled migrants coming to work.
Smith signalled that raising the qualification levels for tier 1 – the most highly skilled migrant route – could cut the numbers from 26,000 to only 14,000 a year. The new criteria will require a master's rather than a bachelor's degree and a job offer with a minimum salary of £20,000 rather than £17,000.
Smith has also asked the government's migration advisory committee to assess the economic case to restrict skilled workers under tier 2 to shortage occupations only. This could cut the numbers from an estimated 80,000 to only 20,000 to 40,000 a year.
The migration advisory committee, chaired by LSE professor David Metcalf, has also been asked to assess the economic impact of banning the spouses and other dependants of foreign workers from taking jobs in Britain. This move could also affect tens of thousands of people who come to work each year mainly from India, Pakistan and parts of Africa.
"These measures are not about narrow protectionism," Smith said. "Just as in a growth period we needed migrants to support growth, it is right in a downturn to be more selective about the skill levels of those migrants, and to do more to put British workers first."
The home secretary said the action she was taking "to be more selective" combined with the economic circumstances. As migration levels tend to fall during periods of recession she expected the number of migrants outside of Europe to fall during the next financial year.
The points-based immigration system does not cover the movement of workers from within the European Union to Britain but official immigration figures to be published on Tuesday are expected to confirm that the number of Poles and other eastern Europeans coming to work continues to fall, especially since the decline of the pound against the Euro.
Other measures outlined today/yesterday include:
• Employers must advertise tier 2 skilled jobs in JobCentres before they can bring in a worker from outside Europe.
• Migration advisory committee to assess economic contribution made by dependants of those who come under the points-based immigration system and their role in the labour market.
• Each shortage occupation declared by the committee to trigger a skills review of the British labour force and how they can be developed to meet the shortage.
Damian Green, the Conservatives' immigration spokesman, said Smith was just "tinkering around the edges" of the system and said if she wanted to control migrant numbers she should introduce an annual limit.
Is this a step towards a better direction? I'm thinking good things.
Misleading thread title. Non EU workers not foreign workers, and not all will be barred.
Yes, it is a good step. BUT only if you take into consideration the guberment's open door policy over the last few years. The problem is the whiff of xenophobia when you see that Sevenoaks has just got a BNP councillor. And a violent one at that.
Worrying times.
guberment, lol...
Yes, one has to panic, there is an openly ultra-right local representative in a what 60 m country, human rights should be on us, now.
Is he really violent?
He was booted out of the BNP for "allegedly" smackin another member.Originally Posted by gazell
I see what they are trying to do but as for the BNP. Well we dont need those thick ****s at all! Worst is I know people who think they would be good to vote for but they dont understand what that meens or what their policies are. They have no intrest in politics they just get hyped up in the moment. Stupid ****ers like that should not be allowed to vote.
Hey mabey I should campagin for earning the right to vote. Oh mabey that makes me as bad as them. Ha.
I could not qualify for membership then in this civilised party...
Oh, Death, I think, you can calm down as yet. I think, everybody also declared not to co-operate with him, I wonder if the locals are going to file a case for segregation, etc.
There is a need of skilled workers in some fiels that can´t be covered just with british workers. Computer Engineers is an example. There are other bachelors that even needed are not very popular because of their difficulty. There is a general lack of workers on those fields in near every country.
As far as I know, there are plenty of computer engineers in the UK, employers are just looking for cheaper options and that is the case in a lot of other businesses, outsourcing, lol, quite a few companies gone bankcrupt on it, actually. Still looking for cheaper options of work force, of course.
So they are going after skilled workers now? I bet the percentage that this represents is minimum compared to the people coming within the EU.
Nuclear engineers and subjects related are other examples.
My Polish relatives told me that unemployment in Poland is rising not because people are being fired in Poland but because they are fired in the UK and return to Poland.
If no one from China, Pakistan, Bangladesh or India is allowed to come in to work, Britain will have to up its graduations of engineers!
Yes, all this problem started because some Indians or Chinese came to replace British workers, right?. IMHO Immigration from EU countries should be controlled as well.
My aunt's, counsin's, next door neighbour's, mate...told me........a lot of Poles left the UK and returned home when the work/wages situation there picked up a year to 2 ago on parity with the rest of the EU. If now they're there and unemployment is rising, tough. I think an EU resident unemployed here can still claim benefits so they wouldn't neccessarily have to return to Poland
So on the one hand Broon is urging international states to reject protectionism and remain integrated; on the other he's jumping on the British jobs crap in a shameful example of whoring himself for votes?
God the man is a ****.
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