Britain To Introduce “Skills-based Immigration That Ends Free Movement”
Prime Minister Theresa May has said that Britain is introducing a migration policy that ends free movement allowing only skilled workers from various parts of the world.
She stated this in a tweet on Tuesday, writing:
We’re introducing a new skills-based immigration system that ends free movement. So that for the first time in decades, this country will control and choose who we want to come here. A system that looks across the globe and attracts people with the skills we need.
We're introducing a new skills-based immigration system that ends free movement. So that for the first time in decades, this country will control and choose who we want to come here. A system that looks across the globe and attracts people with the skills we need. #CPC18 pic.twitter.com/90wKe1Kpr1
— Theresa May (@theresa_may) October 2, 2018
The PM, according to BBC, has also promised that the European Union will not be given preferential treatment after #Brexit.
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”.
“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,” May was quoted as saying.
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