Controlling Immigration

Today, there was a major statement on immigration policy by the Home Secretary. Its purpose was to set in train the reduction of immigration - as set out in the Tory election manifesto.

Immigration is a huge area of concern for local residents. There is a real concern about jobs and housing because of the levels of immigration. This is reflected in the emails I get from constituents, and when I am out and about knocking on doors.

For this reason, during the debate, I asked the Home Secretary the following:


Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): May I congratulate my right hon. Friend on her statement and tell her that my constituents will welcome the move away from expressing rhetoric about British jobs for British workers towards taking substantive action?

Nevertheless, many people in Harlow will be concerned that their jobs are being given away, particularly by big companies like the major supermarkets, to temporary migrant workers. Will my right hon. Friend set out how her measures will help this situation?

Mrs May: I believe that our measures will help because they will tighten up the provisions to ensure that the people who come into this country under either tier 1 or tier 2 are the skilled workers that companies need, not those coming here to do low-skill jobs.

We will also tighten up on the intra-company transfers route through the salary threshold so that that route is available, as it was always intended to be, for senior managers and people with specialist skills rather than for people doing low-skill jobs.



               *************************************************************



The full details announced - as described by the Government - are as follows:

"At the Election we promised to reduce immigration levels to sustainable levels, and the introduction of a limit on non-EU economic migrants is a vital first step. Net immigration reached 196,000 in 2009 and without policy changes would remain at that level. Immigration from outside the EU is by far the largest contributor to the net figure, which we will reduce to the tens of thousands annually.

We will reduce Tier One visas, meant for the brightest and best but widely abused in the past, to 1,000 exceptionally talented individuals. Entrepreneurs and investors will be welcome outside the Tier One limit

We will raise the qualification level for Tier Two visas (where the applicant needs a specific job offer) to degree level jobs only. For international companies transferring their own workers (ICTs) those coming for over 12 months will have to be earning more than £40,000, up from the current floor of £24,000. These ICTs will be outside the limit, to protect Britain's competitiveness.

To hit our overall target we will need to go further. So we will take action on student visas, which are by far the biggest single immigration category. More than 40% of student visas in 2009 were issued to people studying at below degree level. We will consult on proposals to end issuing visas for any courses below first degree level, except for those offered by Highly Trusted Sponsors. We will also consult on reducing the entitlements of students to work while they are here, and to bring in their dependants. The rights of foreign graduates to stay here after their courses to look for work may also be curtailed.

On the family route, we have already announced that those coming here to marry will have to show a basic command of English. We are looking at further measures, including setting a specific income level for the sponsoring spouse, and increasing the time before a newly-arrived spouse qualifies for settlement."