Changes to immigration rules announced by Starmer

[OneAmberFinch]

Full white paper here is extensive and announces changes to all avenues of migration - basically their approach to resolving the issues of massively increased migration from 2019-2023/4.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6821aec3f16c0654b19060ac/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-white-paper.pdf

And Starmer's commentary on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce810e3z6dkt

Handful of headline changes: default timeline to get ILR to go to 10 years instead of 5; abolishing new care worker visas; raising skills threshold for Skilled Workers back up to graduate level; increasing minimum grades required for student visas; various bits and pieces around English language requirements among several other policies

It's the tens of thousands a year breaking into the country in boats and getting kept at our expense.

That's a drop in the ocean a lot just get on a plane and never go home.

The wages are NMW yet the care homes are raking in enormous profits. The owners are making a mint. There is plenty of flex for them to make a more moderate profit but pay their workers more, then they would have to go to extraordinary lengths to recruit only from groups of people far away who don't know what a terrible job it is.

If it's a terrible job, why do you think a moderate pay increase will make much difference to local recruitment?
Realistically, businesses rarely voluntarily hurt their bottom line, so more likely standards will fall and costs will go up for service users and the taxpayer.

At least we know who they are.

Boriswave is in the dictionary now and has been used in a Times editorial. Quite clever spin by labour to pin blame on him, in case he tries to make a comeback

And can vet.

Always helps to read the post doesn't it?

which is why i said this...

All the above ignores the fact that we should want caring empathetic people looking after our elderly, someone who comes here having previously done the work or wants to do it, is more likely to be such a person

Personally, i wouldn't want my Dad cared for by someone who hasn't worked for years, possibly has all or some MH issues, drug abuse, limited education, hates their job and their clients but has been forced to work in 'care.

The Indian CW who look after my neighbour are lovely, she had to repeated visits by the Crisis team, staffed by fully trained OTs, Nurses, Physios before the "Foreigners" came here to look after her, no British people could be found.

Starmer’s ease at 180 degrees from dog whistle to strangers does leave him open to attack

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14705013/crimes-Britain-criminals-Starmer-deportation.html#

I know mn is more Labour so there’s a lot of he’s great no matter what. It’ll be interesting to see how this backlash affects polls.

Well, i cannot comment on the accuracy of this statement but its certainly true that people coming here are bringing in dependents and often a lot of them.

The figure i read was in one year we gave out 170k care worker visas but over 340k dependent visas..

But we voted for this, perhaps you did?
EU workers didn't have to bring in their children and parents, they were just 2 or 3 hours away and had decent homes and healthcare in their own countries, they also, generally speaking, didn't plan on living here for good.

Like most of our problems, it all comes back to policies the Tories have given us over 14 years.

Ummmm the courts blocked those deportations NOT opposition MPs, but judges who followed the law of the land.

If you are so concerned about this, the Tories and their supporters were strangely silent at the time - you have changed the law?

You seem very keen to blame all the problems we face on Labour in opposition but no criticism of the party in Government for 14 years - odd to say the least.

btw i'm no fan of Labour let alone Starmer but to ignore the last 14 years?? really?

Jenrick now saying we are now a "Nation of Strangers" boo hoo Robert, thats all on your party!!

@jasflowers Like most of our problems, it all comes back to policies the Tories have given us over 14 years.

When all else fails blame the Tories 😀

Really? It was Tony Blair who opened the floodgates

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/29/labours-shameful-record-on-immigration

They are refugees

@DuncinToffee if they are genuinely fleeing danger why do they need to destroy their papers?

@bombastix i think it’s been longer than 14 years tbh. It’s been a free for all since 2004 when the A8 EU countries gained FOM. Britain is an administrative shit show, we couldn’t even be bothered to police the FOM rules properly.

the big supermarkets have long questioned official population data. Suggestions that we were at 70 million back in 2007, officially we’ve still not reached that figure in 2025.

@jasflowers EU workers didn't have to bring in their children and parents, they were just 2 or 3 hours away and had decent homes and healthcare in their own countries, they also, generally speaking, didn't plan on living here for good.

8 million applied for settled status after Brexit.

And on the fragile basis of ‘more likely’ we should keep issuing hundreds of thousands of visas?

Agree. Plus the Tories thing is always used. Labour are fighting against Reform it won’t help.

When all else fails, pretend the Tories weren't in power for 14 years...

So who else gave us Brexit? let in millions of unskilled migrants? ran down public services? trebled tuition fees? took away the nurses bursary?
Lowered language skills for migrants....?

None of this happened over the last 9 months.

The alternative should be a robust plan to recruit and retain locals. But there's no sign of that is there?

Multiple same applications, withdrawn applications... look at EU population growth in the UK, after Brexit, less than 1m.

EU workers didn’t have to bring their dependents, but they did.

They brought their children here because they wanted them to be educated in the UK and they bright their elderly parents because they could get free NHS care and benefits further them.

The vast majority are now settled, many are in social housing.

Agree about the plan, I’m the wrong person to ask about one thought.

The Boris Wave is a thing, and seems used in respectable press, Spectator, Prospect. There was an unbelievably awful article about Conservative migration policy in the Critic which is very scathing about post 2019. It is an awful article in some ways. But you don’t get to nearly a million people entering a country within it some mentality like this. As stated above, there isn’t a particular post 2019 why you couldn’t have regulated migration very finely. You write a criteria for entry. The Conservatives just wrote one that was vastly more open than the E.U. rules they had decided to remove.

thecritic.co.uk/explaining-the-boriswave/

People need to look forward. A fixation on the Tories and repeating 14 years isn’t going to get Labour a win.

You’re looking at the wrong competition. It’s engrained for some but the electorate aren’t, look at the polls.

Nope, you'll need to back that up with stats....

There is a reason we have issued millions of visas to Africans and SE Asians, E workers left and now don't come here.

Anecdotally, the EU care workers and HCA's we used, in Livewell have all gone back, replaced with some UK but mainly SE Asians, not just Brexit but due to their economies have done well, look at Poland for example?

Agree. The tories were terrible on this issue. But, they did bring in measures under Rishi Sunak/James Cleverly to reduce net migration. Labour have kept these measures as they are working. Numbers were due to fall significantly, even without the white paper.