Immigration is a subject that doesn’t quite dominate my inbox, but certainly occupies the concerns of many who write to me. In the main, of course, it’s the asylum seekers crossing the Chanel in small boats. But the recent immigration figures announced last week have certainly caused concern.
Small boat immigration is down around 30%, thanks to the deterrent policies, even if there is question; marks over the Rwanda proposals. More on that later. But it is the legal migration that has stunned watchers. Figures for 2022 have been revised upward to around 750,000; 2023 fewer, but still in the order of 650,000.
Since leaving the EU, we have been using the points based immigration system much favoured by those advocating Brexit. This system has seen legal migration balloon.
To be fair, a lot of the increase is from people who come for a limited time. Of the 750,000 in 2022, only around 116,00, I understand, are here for a permanent settlement. The rest are temporary and can be here for degrees, bringing dependents. They will return in due course.
But we need migrants. Our care system would collapse without them. The same with the NHS. Many employers rely on them. So what is the answer?
It is entirely possible the system is being gamed to bring in people who may not be her to benefit our society. So the options include changing a number of factors.
Legal immigrants are required to come for a specific job, under certain criteria. At the moment, the minimum salary they can earn is £26,200. Increasing that to a higher level would certainly make a difference and an inflation linked increase to £31,000 is being mooted.
Similarly, the so called shortage occupancy list – the list of prescribed occupancies with a shortage of staff – may be scrapped. But I’m not sure that is a good idea as we need to know who we need before we decide who can come. And this is the underpinning of the points based system.
Family and dependent visas are controversial and account for a significant surge in numbers. Someone coming for a degree or a job can bring dependents. 355,000 work visas were granted, but those workers brought 250,000 dependents, up close to 90%. This is not sustainable. 144,000 care workers brought 174,000 dependents.
And we can be more careful about who we allow in. Social care workers visas doubled to 144,000, but it may be that the subtly different social work visas are being gamed.
There is also an argument to have a better system for recording what is going on. Numbers have been distorted by student visas. Because of the pandemic, we have no students finishing their courses, and so going home, whilst we have large numbers coming. That distorts the balance.
We need to be able to flex our economy and migration does just that. But we need to do it in a way that does not disadvantage our economy, and that our resident population has confidence in what is going on.
The Rwanda high court ruling – that the removal of illegal immigrants to a third country processing centre – was ruled legal, but that Rwanda is a dubious destination. There have been calls for the high courts to be ignored, and that can be seductive. Why not just ignore the international laws that we sign up to?
The answer is that we need to be confident that the law protects us all. If we establish a habit of ignoring inconvenient laws, that habit may set a precedent that allows a future socialist government in theUK to possibly nationalise without compensation our private businesses or our property. We need to be very careful about what we wish for.