The UK government today announced that the number of immigrants coming into the country under the Tier 1 and Tier 2 route from non-EU countries would be cut to to 21,700 in 2011 as against 28,000 in 2009.
The Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, however, has exempted the intra-company transfers (ICT) from this newly set limit.
Under the new scheme, ICT movements from non-EU countries (like India) for a period of more than one year would be exempt if the employee who is transferred to the UK earns more than £40,000 a year. For transfers that are for less than a year, the salary limit set is £20,000 annually.
It is estimated that last year around 20,000 people came into the UK under ICT transfers from non-EU countries.
Further, under the Tier 2 route, only graduate-level students will be given a visa and non-graduate students will be completely removed from this list. More drastic changes in the student visas are also underway, said Home Secretary Theresa May.
Though a consultation will be set up to enable these changes, the intention of the government is to completely drop the after-graduation work experience visa.
“We will have to take action across all routes to entry -- work visas, student visas, family visas -- and break the link between temporary routes and permanent settlement," Theresa May told MPs in the House of Commons.
Earlier last week, UK’s Migration Advisory Committee had recommended that the number of migrant workers coming into Britain from outside EU be cut between 13-25 per cent next year. The MAC submitted a 300-odd page report to the government in which it had said that the number of visas issued both under Tier 1 and Tier 2 categories in 2011-12 should be between 37,400 and 43,700, which would represent a 6,300 to 12,600 reduction over 2009.
John Cridland, CBI Director-General Designate, said, “Exempting most ‘Intra-Company Transfers’ from the cap will also allow firms with international operations to manage their global workforce effectively. This will make sure that the UK remains an attractive place to base new projects and investment, which means more jobs for UK workers.”
He further said that, “Of course, achieving a reduction in net migration will require action in other areas, including student, family and settlement visas. So we welcome the government’s announcement of a consultation on student visas. Over the coming weeks, we will learn more about how the cap will work in practice, for instance whether it will be operated on a monthly or an annual basis. We would prefer to see a monthly system, which would avoid the long ‘closed’ periods that have affected companies in the US.”
