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Brexit: EU migrants won't get special treatment, May says
Brexit: EU migrants won't get special treatment, May says
2nd October, 2018
Low-skilled migration will fall when the UK ends EU free movement access after Brexit, Theresa May has promised.
The prime minister said high-skilled workers would be prioritised with no preferential treatment for people from the EU compared with those from the rest of the world.
But she said a future trade deal with the EU could include an agreement on "mobility" of each other's workers.
Business groups expressed alarm about a crackdown on low-skilled workers.
The Confederation of British Industry said it would make a shortage of care, construction and hospitality workers worse, adding: "Restricting access to the workers the UK needs is self-defeating."
The British Retail Consortium said the policy should be based on the economy's needs rather an "arbitrarily" drawing a line based on salaries or skills.
And Labour said the government was making a "dubious distinction" between low and high-skilled workers - saying care workers were technically "low-skilled" but were "vital to our society".
As it stands, EU freedom of movement allows people from the European Economic Area - all EU countries, as well as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - plus Switzerland, to travel and work in the UK without visas, regardless of skills.
For the rest of the world, specific categories of visas are needed to come and work or study in the UK, including one for "skilled workers" - who usually have to earn at least £30,000 and have a job offer.
Currently, no "Tier 3" - low-skilled labour - visas are being given out. The UK defines low skilled roles as ones which do not require post-16 education or more than a short period of on-the-job training.
The post-Brexit immigration plans follow a recommendation by the Migration Advisory Committee, which was also backed by Labour.
The cabinet agreed to the committee's recommendations last week, and a White Paper setting out the details is promised in the autumn.
Under the proposals:
- The passports of short-stay tourists and business people from all "low-risk" countries would be scanned at e-gates - currently only EU citizens can do this
- Security and criminal records checks would be carried out before visits, similar to the system of prior authorisation in the US
- Workers wanting to stay for longer periods would need a minimum salary, to "ensure they are not competing with people already in the UK"
- Successful applicants for high-skilled work would be able to bring their immediate family, but only if sponsored by their future employers
- The new system will not cap the number of student visas
"The new skills-based system will make sure low-skilled immigration is brought down and set the UK on the path to reduce immigration to sustainable levels, as we promised," Mrs May said.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said free movement would end "once and for all" once the UK leaves the EU.
Asked whether exemptions would be made for industries requiring high levels of unskilled labour, she said the plan would recognise "the further needs of the economy" but that there would not be "lots of exemptions" for different sectors.
And asked whether tourists would face extra bureaucracy when they visit EU countries, she said she hoped this would be dealt with in the course of the negotiations with the EU.
The new system would aim to bring net migration to "sustainable levels", she promised - which she has defined as being below 100,000, a target the Tories set years ago but have never met.
Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45714413
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Originally Posted by Hithaeglir
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