British Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced plans to cut immigration after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said his conservative policies would not reduce immigration to pre-pandemic levels by 2027. pressure to take more drastic measures.
The OBR said an additional 150,000 migrants will arrive over the next five years, including 410,000 net migrants in the run-up to next year’s elections. In total, immigration is estimated to increase the population by 1.5 million people by 2028-2029.
The budget watchdog also noted a 150 percent increase in work visas issued to foreign medical and social workers, among others.
Mr Sunak is expected to set out further proposals to reduce risks next week, including cutting the number of foreign health and care workers, as net immigration to the UK hits a record high. There is a possibility that He is also expected to announce an increase in the minimum wage required to hire foreign workers, which could make it harder for companies to fill vacancies from overseas.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said 1.2 million migrants, mainly from outside the European Union, were granted visas, fueling the surge.
Revised figures reveal that migrants are estimated to have reached a record high of 745,000 in the year to December 22, the ONS said. The previous estimate for the period up to December 2022 was 606,000, but the ONS revised this figure upwards to take into account “unanticipated patterns” in migrant behavior.
The new figures also revealed that net migration to the UK in the year to June 2023 was a provisional figure of 672,000, up from 607,000 in the previous 12 months. The June 2023 figure is almost triple the pre-Brexit average of 200,000 to 250,000 a year, and the government’s 2019 plan to reduce the overall rate of net immigration from the then level of 226,000. This shatters the promises made in the 2017 manifesto.
The surge is fueled by 1.2 million migrants, mainly from outside the EU, who have been granted visas to enter the UK to study, work or escape conflict or repression. The ONS estimated that 508,000 people had emigrated.
The figures will increase pressure on Rishi Sunak to introduce sweeping new measures to reduce the number of workers and their dependents who are granted visas to live and work in the UK. .
But in a bizarre move, the government is considering banning health and care workers from bringing dependents, or limiting them to one per visa, which would prevent foreign workers from entering the workforce. The minimum salary threshold that must be earned to qualify for a visa will be increased from £26,200 to more than £26,200. Foreign staff in shortage positions will be paid £30,000 and wage discounts will be abolished.
The figures were released a day after the budget watchdog warned the chancellor that the policy would not reduce net migration to pre-pandemic levels by 2027.
Source: guardian.ng