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.
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.
As quoted by Jeremy Paxman, the Home Affairs Committee report into the immigration cap says:
… to make any significant reduction in non-EEA economic immigration, a cap would have to include intra-company transfers, which in 2009 accounted for 60% of all Tier 2 visas and 40% of Tier 1 and 2 combined. We recommend that intra-company transfers under 2 years’ duration should be excluded from the cap.
Yet Green insisted:
“… what the select committee says is that all inter-company transfers for under two years should be completely exempt, what the select committee says is that you have to operate on all routes, not just the work routes, but the student route, and the family route as well, and I completely agree with that, indeed, I’ve been saying that for years.”
Adding:
“Read the rest of it because what they’re saying is that the, what they, they make the point that about a fifth of net immigration is due to the work routes which the cap will apply for, and I completely agree with that, that’s why, once we’ve got this limit on, we are going to look at the student routes, and we’re going to look at the family routes because you do have to bear down on all types of immigration to hit the tens of thousands.”
Watch it:
Yesterday, Left Foot Forward looked at the illogicality of the immigration cap as it it (presently, the interim cap is cutting immigration by only around 1 per cent), and the need to abandon or redefine it, pointing out the report’s conclusion which said:
… the proposed cap – unless it is set close to 100% – will have little significant impact on overall immigration levels.
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19 Responses to “More government confusion over impact of immigration cap”
Anon E Mouse
Absolutely not – don’t care who serves it but my point is that certain jobs seem to be exempt from this government cap – I cite professional footballers.
The Labour MP, Keith Vas – slimy git I know but his opinion is fair – made exactly the point about why a footballer and not a scientist was allowed in.
But back to the kebab: they just seem to be best made at our local kebab shop and that’s run by Turks. Same with Indian restaurants or Chinese. The problem the government has is that I see those jobs as being best done by the experts so although they may not fall into the “Professional” category in my opinion they should be.
It’s a nightmare…
treeman
In 5 years I only had a taxi ride once with a Brit. Taxi driving is hardly skilled. You could do it without a brain as long as you had enough functioning brainstem. You just follow the tom-tom and hold out your hand. I don’t know why we even have the discussion about scientists and footballers. Immigration is overwhelmingly unskilled. You stop that, you stop 90% of it.
Anon E Mouse
treeman – In fairness to Labour, (something I’m not noted for) I do think they share your view on unskilled migration…
How about we leave the EU – that would do it and save £20,000 a minute…
Deborah Segalini
Treeman,in your opinion, why don’t Brits do the jobs you cite?
treeman
anon- you really reckon? wtf you think happened over the last 13 years? we’ve had about 3 times the size of Birmingham arrive, unskilled, from Pakistan, Somalia, Poland and everywhere else. Labour did absolutely nothing to limit it. The taxi drivers here are all Kashmiri or Pakistani, not Polish. And the flow with Poland is 2 way to an extent. Some will stay, some will go home – I’ve 2 Brit friends married to Poles and living there. The non-EU ones are on a 1 way trip – the only reason they might go back is to invite the rest of the village or pick up a few cases of postal votes.