More government confusion over impact of immigration cap

There is further uncertainty over how the government will achieve its stated goal of reducing net immigration to the “tens of thousands” – an aim reiterated by David Cameron in a speech on new technology in east London this afternoon. Yesterday, the prime minister said intra-company transfers would be exempted from the immigration cap – an area over which immigration minister Damian Green came unstuck on Newsnight last night.

Home Office research highlights difficulty of Government’s immigration target

Damian Green is to give his first speech as immigration minister later today, in which he will claim that the number of foreign students entering the UK is ‘unsustainable’, drawing on new Home Office research. The same research has also suggested that it will be very difficult for the Government to meet its target of reducing net immigration to under 100,000 a year.

Migration and Population: Getting beyond rhetoric

We might have expected those calling for drastic reductions in net migration to welcome the recent fall in net migration, particularly given the prominence they have given to concerns about population growth in recent years. Instead MigrationWatch and Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green chose to focus on measure of gross immigration.