Immigration cap 'may not work', MPs warn The government will struggle to achieve its aim of limiting net migration to the UK to "tens of thousands" in five years, MPs have said. BBC News (03-Nov-2010) Ministers vow to curb immigration but MPs warn cap will have little effect )... The Mail On Sunday (James Slack) (03-Nov-2010) Migration cap 'may not be enough' The... The Scotsman (By Wesley Johnson) (03-Nov-2010) MIGRANT CLAMP 'WOULD STOP ONLY 1% FROM COMING HERE' AN ANNUAL. Sunday Express (Macer Hall) (03-Nov-2010) Immigration cap not the answer to cutting net migration figure, say MPs Fewer... Guardian Unlimited - Life and Style (Alan Travis) (03-Nov-2010) MPs raise immigration cap doubts The... BBC News; Isle of Man (03-Nov-2010) Swiss poised to vote on controversial immigrant law Switzerland is poised to vote on a controversial law that will allow for all immigrants EU citizens included to be automatically expelled from the country if they commit a... Telegraph.co.uk (Allan Hall in Berlin) (02-Nov-2010) UK-France Summit press conference A... Number10.gov.uk (02-Nov-2010) Firms given thumbs up on migrant visas The... Telegraph.co.uk (By Richard Tyler) (02-Nov-2010) 5 live Investigates: Immigration Chaos A third of 'highly skilled' migrants coming to the UK are working in low-paid, unskilled jobs such as shelf-stackers. Listen Again to the programme BBC 5 Live (01-Nov-2010) Suspect illegal worker found at GMP's new headquarters A... Manchester Evening News (01-Nov-2010) Asylum madness of governors son THE son... The Scottish Sun (BRIAN FLYNN) (01-Nov-2010) The Ministry of Justice has recently published a consultation paper on proposals to start charging fees for certain categories of appeals against adverse decisions by the UK Border Agency on asylum and immigration applications. Such appeals are heard in the first instance by the First Tier Tribunal, Immigration and Asylum Chamber and by the Upper Tier Tribunal beyond that. Section 42(1) of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, under which the Tribunals are established, empowers the Lord Chancellor to impose fees in respect of anything dealt with by the Tribunals. The consultation paper has been circulated to organisations such as the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association and other bodies concerned with the welfare of immigrants and asylum seekers or with assisting them in the conduct of their appeals. Responses to the consultation paper are invited and may be submitted up to 21 January 2011. For the full document see Briefing Paper No 8.47 At just the time that the government is calling on the private sector to create jobs, they are negotiating in secret an agreement between the EU and India that would allow an unlimited number of Indian specialists to do work in Britain that has not been first offered to British workers. This could well blast a hole in Britain's immigration controls - that is the conclusion of a paper issued today by Migrationwatch. The EU/India Free Trade Agreement due to be signed in December will permit Indian corporations to transfer specialist staff to EU countries, notably the UK, without any upper limit on numbers. This has potentially serious implications for Britain: This Agreement could, of course, present very serious problems in implementing a cap on economic migration to which the coalition government are committed. The concessions under it would have to be operated outside any cap or the level of the cap would have to be adjusted to allow for demand for Intra Company Transfer visas from India. There may be scope for a minimum salary but such conditions are notoriously hard to enforce. Commenting, Sir Andrew Green Chairman of Migrationwatch said, ‘It is time the government came clean about what is in this agreement. It looks as though the Indians are about to drive a bullock and cart through Britain's immigration system despite government talk about creating jobs in the private sector. There is no point in a limit on economic migration if specialists from India are excluded from the cap by a separate agreement. British IT workers are already suffering the impact on jobs of tens of thousands of Indian IT staff working in Britain; we already have 48,000 unemployed British IT specialists.’ Today's English Housing Survey provides further evidence of the pressure placed by immigration on the housing sector. Foreign nationals now occupy 8.4% of the social housing stock. Among occupants aged 16-40 that figure rises to 12.6%. Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch UK said "This finally destroys the myth that less than 2% of council and housing association tenants are recent immigrants. It further underlines the failure of the previous government to address the housing crisis despite encouraging massive levels of immigration". Note to Editors: In April 2008 the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Local Government Association (LGA) published a study by the IPPR which claimed that less than 2% of social housing was taken up by foreign born people who arrived in the UK in the previous 5 years. That formulation was deeply misleading as today's figure illustrate.
A selection of recent media reports
Briefing Papers
Proposals to Charge Fees for Immigration and Asylum Appeals
3 November, 2010EU Deal Means British Jobs for Indian Workers
25 October, 2010Press Releases
One in Twelve Social Houses Occupied by Foreign Nationals
27 October, 2010
Wednesday 3 November 2010
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