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Gordon Brown unveils tougher immigration rules
Prime minister announces plans to reduce the number of professions that can recruit from outside Europe
- Hélene Mulholland
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 11.31 GMT
- Article history
Gordon Brown today outlined plans to tighten the UK's immigration rules by reducing the number of professions which can recruit from outside Europe and limit the numbers coming in to Britain on student visas.
In his first significant speech on immigration since taking office, the prime minister also stressed that the case for managed and controlled migration was not an issue for "fringe parties nor a taboo subject" but about what it means to be British, and said reforms introduced since the start of his tenure had made current laws more responsive to new global trends.
Brown promised a tightening of the "labour market test", which allows employers to recruit migrants from outside the settled workforce for a skilled job only if they can show that no suitably qualified settled worker can fill the role. Under the test, a job vacancy must also be advertised for two weeks before a migrant can be recruited. In future the job will have to be advertised for a month.
The prime minister said that government-sanctioned training schemes would be created to ensure that unskilled British workers could ultimately take on the jobs in sectors where there are genuine skills shortages, such as catering, supply teaching or some skilled medical and engineering jobs.
He also announced a review of student visas, with a view to considering the case for raising the minimum level of course for which foreign students can apply.
Under the points system, all employers and colleges will be expected obtain a licence to act as a sponsor for each migrant and ensure they are following the rules.
Brown said a round of inspections of colleges approved to sponsor student applications had seen the list of such institutions cut by more than half - from 4,000 to 1,800 - as well as the temporary shutting down of applications for student visas from parts of China where there had been evidence of abuse.
His speech in west London follows private polling conducted during the summer by the Unite trade union showing that immigration is the single biggest issue leading natural Labour voters to defect either to the more extreme parties, such as the British National party, or refusing to vote at all.
"Ours is a something for something, nothing for nothing society," Brown said.
He stressed the need for a fundamental restatement of what Britain expects of those who aspire to become citizens, as well as strengthening the idea of what it means to be British.
"If the main effect of immigration on your life is to make it easier to find a plumber, or when you see doctors and nurses from overseas in your local hospital, you are likely to think more about the benefits of migration than the possible costs.
"But people want to be assured that newcomers will accept the responsibilities as well as the rights that come with living here - obeying the law, speaking English, and making a contribution. So if people ask me: 'Do I get it?' Yes I get it."
Brown rejected "an inflexible arbitrary quota" cap on numbers coming to the country, which he said would " deny British businesses the flexibility they need, overturn our obligations to our EU neighbours, prevent employers from filling vacancies, damage our economy and hurt our public services".
Legislation would be introduced "very soon" to ensure that local workers were not disadvantaged by lower rates of pay paid than agency workers, often from Europe, by ensuring that they were paid the same rate after twelve weeks of employment.
The prime minister said those who wanted to stay in Britain would have to prove their commitment after five years of being in the country by a probation system , which included a clean criminal record.
Those from within the EU who incurred a conviction would be kicked out of the country if they received a sentence of twelve months or more, he said.
"The changes I have set out today - the new points based system on entry, and the proposed points based system for citizenship - amount to far more than a different mechanism for handling immigration," Brown said. "Together they constitute a fundamental reform of a decades old system - a reform founded on the British values of personal responsibility and civic duty. They are aimed at ensuring our economy continues to attract and retain the
highly skilled workers we need, whilst reinforcing the rights and responsibilities of newcomers, and the expectations society has of them at every stage."
The Migration Advisory Committee, a government body, said in a report last week that the number of people in the government's skills shortage list had fallen in a year from 700,000 to 500,000. That represented less than 2% of all employees. It also found that net immigration for work-related reasons has fallen throughout 2008.
Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: "Gordon Brown's speech had a completely hollow ring to it. This is the government that tried to cover up a deliberate policy of increasing immigration and the prime minister's comments show that he has no idea about how to deal with the whole question of immigration now."
This post has been edited by newlight: 12 November 2009 - 12:00 PM
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