What’s likely to be in Labour’s immigration crackdown?
2 hours agoBrian WheelerPolitical reporter
Getty ImagesHome Secretary Yvette Cooper is preparing to unveil fresh plans to reduce UK net migration, which last year stood at 728,000.
Successive governments have battled largely in vain to reduce net migration, which is the number of people coming to the UK minus the number leaving.
In June 2023, the figures hit a record 906,000.
The Home Office will not officially confirm the planned new laws in its immigration white paper, due early next week.
But here is what we think it might include.
Skills investment
Employers will have to show they are investing in UK skills before they will be allowed to bring in workers from overseas, the white paper is expected to say.
This has long been promised by Labour, with the IT and telecommunications sectors likely to be targeted.
Yvette Cooper last year promised to strengthen the Migration Advisory Committee so it can “highlight key sectors where labour market failures mean there is over-reliance on international recruitment”.
Visa restrictions
Visa applications from nationalities judged most likely to overstay and claim asylum in the UK are likely to be restricted under the plans.
In practice, this will mean tougher screening and more probing from officials for people from countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka who want to come to the UK to study or work.
These three countries were named by the Home Office in March as the biggest source of asylum seekers who had originally entered the UK on a visa.
Permanent residence
Migrants already living in the UK are expected to have to wait longer before they can apply for permanent residency, under the proposals.
At the moment, most people can apply for indefinite leave to remain if they have lived and worked in the UK for five years.
This period could be extended to as long as 10 years for some migrants, according to reports.
English language tests
The white paper is thought likely to include tougher English language requirements for immigrants.
But the Home Office has denied reports that the test for work visa applicants will be raised to the equivalent of English as a foreign language A-Level.
At the moment, new arrivals are required to demonstrate a basic understanding of English, equivalent to GCSE level, to be eligible for certain work visas.
International care workers
The immigration white paper is also expected to highlight new rules which came into force last month on the recruitment of international care workers.
Since 9 April, care providers who want to recruit a new worker from overseas have had to first prove that they have attempted to recruit a worker from within England.
‘Right to family life’
The government is currently reviewing how the “right to a family life” contained in Article 8 in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is applied in immigration cases – and changes could be included in the white paper.
Last month, Yvette Cooper told the BBC “ad hoc” decisions by the courts have for too long been driving the way in which the law is interpreted “rather than having a clear framework set out by government”.
“So we do think it is possible to have a stronger framework that is set out around the way in which international law should be interpreted,” she told the Today programme.
“We obviously continue to comply with international law, but it’s about how it is interpreted. We’re reviewing that at the moment.”
Last year, Cooper successfully appealed against an immigration tribunal’s decision to halt the deportation of an Albanian criminal partly on the grounds that it would be “unduly harsh” on his 10-year-old son, who had emotional and sensory difficulties and “will not eat the type of chicken nuggets that are available abroad”.
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