Earlier this week, Home Secretary, James Cleverly, announced a set of new measures designed to reduce immigration levels in the UK.
Cleverly’s Five Point plan
Step one in Cleverly’s Five Point Plan is to “end the abuse of the health and care visa” by stopping overseas care workers from bringing family dependents with them into the UK. He added that around 120,000 dependents accompanied 100,000 care workers and senior care workers in the year ending September 2023. Out of these dependents, only 25% are estimated to be in work. Cleverly stated that this means that “a significant number are drawing on public services rather than helping to grow the economy”.
Additionally, he has increased the annual immigration health surcharge from £624 to £1,035, acting as a 66% rise. This is a fee which some people pay as part of their immigration application, depending on the immigration status they are applying for.
Step two in his Five Point Plan is an increase to the minimum salary requirement for skilled worker visas, bringing it from £26,200 to £38,700. This means the minimum salary that prospective immigrants must earn in a skilled job to get a skilled worker visa has increased by around a third. Those arriving on health and social care visa routes will be exempt from this.
Step three is aimed at cracking down on cut-price labour for overseas. The government will end the 20% going rate salary discount for professions in the greatest need and will also be replacing the Shortage Occupation List with a new Immigration Salary List, which will contain less occupations.
Step four is to raise the minimum income for family visas so that immigrants only bring dependents into the UK which they can support financially. This brings the minimum income requirements up from £18,600 to £38,700.
Finally, he has also asked the Migration Advisory Committee to review The Graduate Route. The Graduate Route is where a Graduate visa gives you permission to stay in the UK for at least 2 years after successfully passing an eligible course in the UK, such as a UK bachelor’s degree or postgraduate degree. This means that international students can currently access a two-year post-work study visa. The decision to review The Graduate Route comes in the wake of the decision to ban overseas masters students from bringing family members into the UK.
The Office of National Statistics’ net migration figure for the UK in 2022 was 745,000, acting as a record high. Cleverly has predicted that his Five Point Plan will mean that around 300,000 fewer people will come into the UK than in previous years.
Criticism
These decisions surrounding immigration have not been without criticism, particularly due to the UK already struggling to fill staff vacancies.
“In a chaotic panic, Prime Minister now opposes the policies that he introduced and thinks that their own decisions are a problem, but who does the Home Secretary think has been in charge for the last 13 years?” –Yvette Cooper, Shadow Home Secretary
“The government has put the final hammer blow to our crumbling social care system. The home secretary’s announcement of new immigration plans will sacrifice migrant care workers and risk a total collapse of the UK’s care system, just to appease extremist Tory backbenchers. […] Had he [Rishi Sunak], or his ministers, spoken to any employer in the care sector, they would know that any plans to curb the migrant care workforce will cause utter disaster. Not allowing migrant care workers to bring any dependents with them to the UK will do exactly that. […] Staff vacancies will soar from the current number of 152,000, and I don’t see a queue of British workers waiting to take up those posts. We will see care homes closing and care companies going bust.” –Christina McAnea, General Secretary of UNISON