LKCN NewsThe Government launched a 16 week consultation of its new immigration bill. The consultation paper, named Making Migration Work for Britain, has been designed to target employers, educational institutions, prospective migrants and the public to gain their views on how the new five-tiered, point system should work. It is expected the prosposals and timetable for implementation will be announced in the Spring of 2006.

The new system, which categories all migrants, temporary or with intention to settle, into five tiers. A simple point system will be applied to assess the prospective migrants. The assessment is based primarily on economic benefits the migrants can bring to the UK. The Government want hear the public’s view on this objective.

Immigration Minister Tony McNulty said, “This country needs migration - tourists, students and migrant workers make a vital contribution to the UK economy. We need to ensure, however, that while we let in migrants with the skills and talents to benefit Britain we stop those who are trying to abuse our hospitality and place a burden on our society. We will ensure that the new system is underpinned by measures to ensure that we only admit those who meet our criteria, that people stick to the terms of their leave to enter while they are here and leave when they are supposed to.”

The new five tiers system:

Tier 1: Highly skilled individuals to contribution to growth and productivity.
Tier 2: Skilled workers with a job offer; and workers to meet specific overseas requirements.
Tier 3: Limited numbers of workers to fill low skill shortage.
Tier 4: Students: increasing exports and improving the education sector for the UK.
Tier 5: Other temporary categories; visiting workers; selected development schemes and youth mobility/cultural exchage.

The consultation paper doesn’t include marriage-related migration and current Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) system.