UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, the 12th of May, pledged to significantly reduce net migration to the UK over the next four years, saying that without stricter immigration rules the country risks becoming an “island of strangers”, according to Reuters and the British broadcaster BBC.
Immigration controls were a key factor in the 2016 vote for Britain to leave the European Union, but after leaving the bloc, immigration numbers reached record highs, boosting the popularity of Nigel Farage’s right-wing, anti-immigration UK Reform Party.
“This plan means that migration will fall. That’s a promise,” Starmer told reporters. “If we have to take further measures,… then we will do it.”
He dismissed claims that tighter immigration rules could harm the UK economy, saying recent years had shown that high immigration had not led to higher growth. However, he refused to set a target for reducing net migration, saying “arbitrary” pledges by previous governments had failed.
The Home Office estimated that immigration could fall by 100 000 people a year by 2029, based on an analysis of eight key policies where a “quantitative assessment” can be made.
Starmer’s centre-left Labour government said it would raise English language requirements, make it harder for migrants to stay in the country and prevent businesses, including care homes, from hiring staff from overseas.
Instead, businesses will have to recruit British nationals or extend visas for foreign workers already in the country. According to the Home Office, these changes will reduce the number of foreign workers by 7 000 to 8 000 a year.
Employers will also have to pay more to recruit foreign workers as the Immigration Skills Levy will increase by 32%.
Only those who have lived in the UK for ten years instead of five will be automatically eligible for citizenship, and skilled worker visas will be restricted to university graduates. Lower qualification requirements will remain in sectors where there is a long-term shortage of workers, or in sectors considered important in the government’s industrial strategy.
UK universities may also be subject to a new tax per international student, with the funds raised going towards job training programmes.
Universities will also have to meet stricter standards, with at least 95% of international students applying must start and 90% must finish. This is to prevent people using student visas to enter the UK without any genuine intention of studying.
The UK Government could also change the way in which the right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights is used in immigration cases. It wants a stricter interpretation and is likely to hold a vote in Parliament to guide the courts on this issue.
The decision was triggered by the case of a Palestinian family who, on appeal, were granted the right to live in the UK after initially applying under the scheme for Ukrainians.
In June 2023, net migration – the number of people entering the UK minus the number leaving – rose to a record 906 000, up from 728 000 last year. In 2019, when Britain was still part of the EU, it was 184 000.
But businesses say they are unable to recruit enough local staff, and employers in science, technology and other fields warn that the clampdown will affect overall economic growth.
The new measures are mainly about reducing legal immigration, but the arrival of asylum seekers in small and unsafe boats is an equally big challenge for the government.
One Labour lawmaker told Reuters: “We will make a big political mistake if we take a tough line on immigration, but we have no solution” on small boats.