HELLO
According to a press release issued this morning, the White Paper will outline sweeping reforms across key areas of migration — including work, study, and family routes. The Home Office characterises the proposals as introducing “radical reforms” and setting out “whole new approaches” to migration grounded in the principles of control, economic contribution, and community cohesion.
The Home Office has announced that the long-anticipated White Paper on immigration will be published tomorrow ACCORDING SOURCE INFORMATION, marking what it describes as a fundamental overhaul of the UK’s immigration system.
Among the most significant changes is a tightening of the skilled worker visa criteria. The Government plans to raise the qualification threshold to RQF Level 6 — equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree — in an effort to curb rising numbers of lower-skilled workers entering the country. Corresponding salary thresholds will also be adjusted to reflect the elevated skill requirement.
For roles that do not meet the new skill level, access to the immigration system will be strictly limited. Visas will be issued only where there is compelling evidence of shortages vital to the UK’s industrial strategy. In such cases, employers will also be expected to put forward workforce plans to boost domestic recruitment and skills development.
The Home Office stresses that the UK will remain open to the best of international talent, but skilled work for migration purposes “must truly mean skilled work”.
“Employers will first need to develop domestic training plans to boost British skills and recruitment levels – increasing productivity and living standards for working people in the UK,” the press release explains.
In another significant development, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News this morning that the Care Worker visa route will be closed for overseas recruitment.
The Home Secretary stated in today’s Government press release: “We inherited a failed immigration system where the previous government replaced free movement with a free market experiment. Employers were given much greater freedom to recruit from abroad while action on training fell. Overseas recruitment soared at the same time as big increases in the number of people not working or in education here in the UK. … Under our Plan for Change, we are taking decisive action to restore control and order to the immigration system, raise domestic training and skills, and bring down net migration while promoting economic growth.”
In a comment piece published in the Independent today, Professor Jonathan Portes, a leading expert on migration and labour markets, said that the measures will likely undermine the economy. He warned that “knee-jerk policymaking” to reduce immigration will lower not only overall economic output but also average household incomes and living standards. Citing Office for National Statistics data, he noted that migrant workers tend to earn more and see faster wage growth than their UK-born counterparts, contributing positively to per-capita GDP.
Portes also challenged claims that recent growth has been driven largely by low-skilled migration, pointing to evidence of wage progression among newer arrivals. He further criticised cost estimates circulated by some think tanks, suggesting that correcting key errors in their modelling would show a substantial fiscal benefit from migrant settlement.FOR MORE INFORMATION https://www.gov.uk/ https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration