The British government has outlined plans on Sunday (11) to end what it called the “free market experiment” in mass immigration, restricting workers’ visas and forcing companies to increase training for local workers.
Prime Minister Keir Strmer is under pressure to reduce net migration after the success of Nigel Farage’s right-wing right-wing party in this month’s local elections.
According to the new government plans, qualified visas will be granted only to people in postgraduate jobs, while viewed for less qualified functions will only be issued in critical areas for the country’s industrial strategy. In return, companies should raise the training of British workers.
Medical assistance companies will no longer be able to apply for visas for workers recruited abroad.
The labor government said that the changes will be part of a policy document, known as “white paper“To be published on Monday (12), defining how ministers plan to reduce immigration.
High levels of legal migration were one of the main motivators of the vote for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in 2016, with voters dissatisfied with the free circulation of workers in the bloc.
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After the United Kingdom finally left the European Union by 2020, the then conservative government reduced the limit to allowing workers in categories such as yoga teachers, dog and DJ walkers to be eligible for visas of qualified workers.
“We inherited a bankrupt immigration system in which the previous government has replaced free circulation with a free market experiment,” said Yvette Cooper, a British interior minister in a statement. “We are taking decisive measures to restore control and order in the immigration system.”
Although changes in post-Brexit visas caused a sharp drop in the number of European Union migrants to the UK, new work visa rules and people coming from Ukraine and Hong Kong under special visa schemes have led to an increase in immigration.
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Net migration – or the number of people who arrive in the UK less total – reached a record of 906,000 people in the year by June 2023, above 184,000 people who arrived in the same period in 2019, when the United Kingdom was still in the EU.
Cooper said the combination of changes in low -qualification rules and closing visas for recruited caregivers would probably reduce the number of visas of low -qualification workers by up to 50,000 this year.
British employers expressed concern about government plans to harden the rules for foreign workers, saying they are necessary to supply scarcity in the labor market.
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Asked about the government’s latest announcement, a spokesman for the British industry confederation highlighted the comments of the institution’s director general, Rain Newton-Smith, The Timespublished on Friday (9), in which she supported the pressure for more training of British workers.
“But there is no doubt that sometimes companies will face a serious shortage of qualified labor,” said Newton-Smith. “And of course, they will seek domestic routes to supply this scarcity, but there will be times when immigration will be an important way.
