Britain’s new immigration minister, Damian Green, has indicated that students from India and other non-European Union (EU) countries will have to furnish a bond of a specified amount before coming here to study at British institutions.
Green, who was the Conservative spokesman on immigration issues, believes the current points-based student visa system is the ‘biggest single loophole’ and has promised to bring about major changes in the immigration system.
British authorities had suspended the issue of student visas in north India, Nepal and Bangladesh earlier this year, after missions received an unusually large number of applications from these regions.
“We want genuine students and want a fair system. We will introduce the bond system for international students, whereby the bond amount will be refunded when they leave after completing their studies,” Green had told an audience at the Guru Nanak Prakash Singh Sabha in Bristol recently.
International students are a source of major revenue because they pay three times higher fees than students from UK and the European Union.
Among other new measures, Green is likely to introduce is an annual cap on the number of skilled professionals from India and other countries the EU in order to drastically reduce the annual number of migrants coming to Britain.
According to the coalition agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, it is the Conservative policy that has been adopted by the new coalition government.
The coalition agreement had said: “We have agreed there should be an annual limit on the number of non-EU economic migrants admitted into the UK to live and work. We will consider jointly the mechanism for implementing the limit”.
The overall goal of the Conservative party’s policy is to reduce net immigration to the levels of the 1990s — “tens of thousands a year, instead of the hundreds of thousands every year under the Labour government”.
Green said: “There are benefits of immigration but not of uncontrolled immigration. There is concern about immigration within the migrant community that have integrated well in the British society over the years. We will ensure that immigration returns to the level of the 1980s and 1990s”.
The proposed annual cap, however, is expected to be opposed by campaign groups who believe any such measure will ultimately affect British trade, industry and economy.
Amit Kapadia, director of HSMP Forum, said: “Any such cap will affect Indian professionals because most non-EU migrants to UK come from India. But we will oppose and lobby against any illogical number or cap that the government may seek to impose”.
Kapadia said the Conservative party had not been able to come up with any number as a cap for the annual number of migrants into UK.
Any knee-jerk attempt to impose a cap will hurt the British economy and will be opposed by British business and industry, he said.
The Conservative party's policy on immigration states that to promote integration into British society, it would introduce an English language test for anyone coming here from outside EU to get married.
The policy says: “Britain can benefit from immigration, but not uncontrolled immigration. Look at any aspect of life today and you will see the contribution that migrants have brought, and not just to the economy. We want to continue to attract the brightest and the best people to the UK, but with control on the overall numbers coming here”.
