Measures to raise the bar for foreign workers wishing to enter the United Kingdom, and to give domestic workers a greater chance of applying first for United Kingdom jobs, were recently unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.
Jacqui Smith pledged to use the flexibility built into the points-based system (PBS) to respond to changing economic circumstances - helping British workers through the hard times of the recession. "Just as in a growth period we needed migrants to support growth, it is right in a downturn to be more selective about the skill levels of those migrants, and to do more to put British workers first
The Government has already suspended tier 3 of the PBS to ensure no foreign national from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) can come to the United Kingdom and work in a low-skilled job.
Jacqui Smith announced three significant changes to support British workers and to be more selective about the migrants coming to the United Kingdom from outside the EEA. From 1 April the Government will:
- strengthen the resident labour market test for tier 2 skilled jobs so that employers must advertise jobs to resident workers through JobCentre Plus before they can bring in a worker from outside Europe;
- use each shortage occupation list to trigger skills reviews that focus on up-skilling resident workers for these occupations, which will make the United Kingdom less dependent on migration for the future; and
- tighten new criteria against which highly skilled migrants seeking entry to the United Kingdom are judged, by raising the qualifications and salary required for tier 1 (General) of the PBS to a Master's degree and a minimum salary of £20,000.
Smith also stated, "given the economic circumstances and the action we are taking to be more selective, I expect the number of migrants coming to the UK from outside the EEA to fall during the next financial year. Today I am also asking the independent Migration Advisory Committee, led by David Metcalf, to consider further changes to the way in which foreign workers are currently able to enter the UK to work."
Source: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/
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