The UK coalition government is struggling to defend its decision to impose an annual cap on immigration after its announcement of a temporary limit on the number of non-European Union citizens entering on Tiers 1 and 2 visas.
The immigration cap, which will be imposed in April next year, is effectively only for non-EU immigrants as Eurozone has open borders and no government can control movement of Europeans within the EU.
“The first two tiers of the points-based immigration system are effectively the only ones that the UK government can impose caps on,” Sarah Mullay, senior research fellow at think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, told this newspaper.
These two tiers are linked to highly-skilled workers, investors, entrepreneurs, and sponsored skilled workers. “The government would not really want to drastically cut the number of non-EU immigrants entering Britain from this route,” Ms Mullay added.

Political compulsions

The biggest dilemma for the UK government is how to control immigration in these two categories and also keep businesses and high trade partner countries happy. India has already raised the issue with the British government when Union commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma and his high-level business delegation complained about the new norms during talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, business secretary Vince Cable and universities and science minister David Willetts.
The cap cannot be flexible enough to accommodate changes in markets and businesses. “If a cap is to mean anything, there can’t be much flexibility built into it for so-called special cases. There must be a possibility therefore that the quota of places could be filled well before the end of the year, meaning firms who need to bring in migrants later in the year will miss out,” IPPR head of migration Tim Finch said.
“There is a lot of internal dissent within the Conservative party and the business sector over the introduction of the cap,” Ms Mulley said.
The Conservative party had promised to impose a cap on immigration in its manifesto and this pledge was retained in the joint policy document agreed to by the Tories and Liberal Democrats. The LibDems had consistently opposed any cap on immigration during the election campaign.
“The Tories had made a lot of promises and claims on controlling immigration during the election campaign. They are in a very difficult position because for one thing, they barely have the power to cap most parts of the immigration system as they can’t cut European immigration, can’t cut family immigration, they can’t cut refugee intake. It is unlikely to have a major impact on numbers,” the IPPR senior fellow added.

Students visas next?

Home secretary Theresa May, who announced interim limits on non-EU immigration last month, has confirmed that student visas will be the next immigration issue to be decided by the coalition Cabinet.
Higher education is a one of the largest industries in the UK and it generates £55 billion annually. Foreign students are an important component of this industry and they pay full fees for their studies. About 350,000 foreign students attend British universities every year and they pay £2.5 billion a year in fees and make an overall estimated contribution of £8.5 billion to the economy every year.
“Students are out of the cap at the moment and I think they will be made a part of this system by the review ordered by the government,” Ms Mullay said. “Student immigration is at a historical high at the moment and it likely the government will tighten up student visa regime.”
The universities, which have been struggling with lesser and lesser funds from the UK government, are concerned the immigration cap would keep international students away from their campuses. Concerns have been raised by various lobbying groups that the post-study work visa, which allows non-EU students to stay in the UK and work for two years after graduation, could be scrapped as it is the main route of recruitment of international students by the UK businesses.
“Higher education institutions hire their staff from overseas so academics will also be affected,” she added.

Net immigration

The level of net migration — the number of people coming to work and live in the UK over people leaving to live abroad — has been falling sharply, from 220,000 in 2007 to 142,000 in September 2009.
“We already have strict controls in place on immigration. I think the cap is unnecessary. The system we have at present works very well as it makes sure that people can only come if there is a genuine gap in the economy. I don’t think the cap adds much value to that,” Ms Mullay added.
The cap aims to cut down on immigration from non-EU countries and Indians and also Bangladeshis and Pakistanis form the largest group in this category.
“I don’t think this cap is targeted at any particular group. Obviously because they are unable to cap immigration from within the EU any measures they take will affect non-EU migrants. Indians are one of the significant groups using the points-based system and one of the biggest ethnic groups in the UK. To that extent, I think any changes like this will disproportionately affect Indians, but I don’t think that is the intention of the policy,” Ms Mullay explained when asked whether the cap was targeted at high-immigration from South Asia, and India in particular.