IMMIGRATION AFTER THE ELECTION - ALL CHANGE?

With immigration one of the hot topics in this year’s election, it seems a foregone conclusion that the Government will be forced by the weight of public opinion to “get tough” on economic migration – foreign nationals coming to the UK to take up employment.

But will Labour’s manifesto pledges on immigration, if put into effect, really make it more difficult for employers wanting to take on overseas workers to fill vacancies in the UK? We take a closer look…

A Points System for Immigration

The Government argues that the UK has a need for skilled workers, and therefore is proposing to put in place a single “points” system. This will assess the skills of would-be immigrants who are seeking to enter the UK to work or study, in place of the numerous separate routes that exist at present (work permits; student visas; seasonal agricultural workers; the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP); etc).

The new system will have four “tiers”:

Tier 1

This is for highly skilled workers – doctors, engineers, finance experts, IT specialists and the like – and for investors and entrepreneurs. Applicants will have to score a certain number of points against criteria based on:

• Current earnings
• Graduate and postgraduate education
• Work experience
• Level of proposed investment
• Number of UK-based jobs their business plans will create.