The British Government has announced a series of restrictions and limitations on the hiring of workers residing abroad in order to reduce legal net migration, which has tripled since the entry into force of Brexit. The new measures will lead to a reduction of about 300,000 people in the total number of immigrants who entered the United Kingdom through official routes, according to estimates advanced by the new head of the Interior, James Cleverly, in the Westminster Parliament.
“Enough is enough,” said the minister after recalling that migration peaked in December 2022, with an annual net of 745,000 migrants. The acceleration has slowed down this year and 672,000 were registered in the 12 months to June, but it is still well above the 240,000 officially estimated before the departure of the European Union, when Community nationals had freedom of residence and work in United Kingdom.
Brexit gave way to an immigration policy based on a points system in correspondence with the situation of the labor market in different professional sectors, from doctors to cooks, fruit pickers, truck drivers or graphic designers. The number of arrivals from the EU then decreased and arrivals from the rest of the world skyrocketed.
Cleverly outlined in the House of Commons the outlines of a “five-point plan”, which restricts the options and rights of foreign companies, workers and students, including their respective dependent family members.
The minimum salary for qualified professionals is raised from the current 30,000 euros gross per year to a new ceiling of 45,000, which will apply from spring 2024. A similar level of salary must be declared by the foreign resident who requests to bring to the country a dependent.
Cutting the number of family members admitted on a work visa is the route chosen by Rishi Sunak’s Government to contain legal migration. Conservative ranks are putting pressure on the prime minister on one of the Brexit promises, “regaining control of the borders”, and demanding that he stop the arrival of foreigners through legal channels and end dangerous boat crossings through the English Channel.
The Interior is expected to announce in the coming days the new strategy that will allow the controversial plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda to be relaunched, after the Supreme Court’s setback.
Cleverly focused this Monday on the labor access routes to the United Kingdom of an immigration plan that must be, as he explained, “fair, consistent, legal and sustainable.” Health and social assistance, sectors where there is a lack of labor, escape the high salary level that the Government requires in other professional fields. However, the number of family members who can accompany each new hire in social services to the United Kingdom will be restricted.
The Government will also eliminate a 20% salary discount with respect to the national union remuneration that companies can offer right now to foreigners in work areas without sufficient labor. It is a measure that the Labor opposition demands, along with other measures, in its program to reduce net migration.