New British PM Cameron to 'minimize' immigrants to UK! ( Selective Citizenship?)

How interesting, so the new PM is going to establish limits on how many people can legally come to UK every year.

New British Prime Minister David Cameron says he will impose an annual limit on the number of non-EU immigrants admitted into Britain, a report says.

According to All Headline News (AHN), the cap on the number of immigrants coming into Britain is likely to affect Indian professionals along with trade and industry in the country.

The Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats had already agreed on the issue in principal, but the coalition government released the full text of the official agreement on May 21.

The government's newly launched coalition program seeks to impose "new measures to minimize abuse of the immigration system, for example via student routes, and will tackle human trafficking as a priority," although it believes "immigration has enriched our culture and strengthened our economy," AHN reported.

The Conservative Party hopes the new policy will reduce the total number of immigrants to Britain, which now stands at around 150,000, to the level of the 1990s, around 70,000.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 4.9 million people who live in Britain, 8.3 percent of the total population, were born overseas. This is more than double the 2.1 million (4.2 percent) in 1951.

I dont' know the current status of the problem of immigration in the UK, from what I've heard alot of people aren't happy.

Any people from the UK to comment?

~Keeper



[edit on 5/23/2010 by tothetenthpower]

I'd like to add that something like this is the beginning of population control IMO.

They could decide to stop providing any sort of immigration status to people who are considered "un-worthy".

Or this could be a good thing where there is more screening involved.

I'm conflicted as I don't know enough about the issues in the UK to form a really educated opinion.

~Keeper

Yes I am from the UK, and I am involved in matters concerning immigration. And I will be clear the issue regarding numbers coming into the UK from outside the EU is not as big a problem as it is made out to be. Certainly their has been in past years the ability of non EU citizens to come to the UK to fill jobs in catering and social care. To be frank these are mainly unskilled workers who are engaged in employment that most UK citizens could do.

The new cap which will be imposed, will come about after the Goverment consults with the business community, the NHS and other public bodies so that an exact number for the cap can be established, this will be based on the needs of the country, and a ban will be imposed on many unskilled workers, that have in the past been able to come here and work.

This is a welcome step, but it does not address the fundemental key issue that has plagued and will continue to plague the Immigration system, and that is the abuse of asylum. It is the case that there has been a massive backlog of asylum cases were asylum has been refused, but due to the protracted nature of the removals process the chances of removing them from the UK is slim.

When an asylum seeker has reached the end of their case, it is the duty of the Immigratin service to remove them from the UK and this is done by making an application for a travel document, most asylum seekers come to the UK without any documents to prove nationality and that has to be determined by language analysis and various interviews. If an applicant does not have a passport or any document to prove their nationality, the service is required to apply to an Embassy or consulate in the UK to obatin a travel document.

This is a protracted process as most failed asylum seekers who enter the UK do so with no documents and porvide the service with false names and dates of birth, so when the service makes that application to the embassy of consulate on behalf of a failed asylum seeker there is a requirement to provide them with the applicants details, which they in turn check againts their national records in their own countries. So if a failed asylum seeker gives the wrong information on a travel document application and that is sent to the embassy, and they in turn cannot verify that person as being their national, a travel document will not be issued, and the process starts again, with the applicant having a further interview to try and obtain the correct details, and this can go on and on and on.

The issue for the Government is not so much those seeking to enter from outside the EU for employment, but the failed asylum seekers who cannot be removed from the UK, due to these failed asylum seekers providing false of information at a travel document interview, the avarage length of time to get a travel document secured (provided the applicant provides genuine details) can take from 6 to 12 months, during which time the failed asylum seeker is free to roam the streets and in some cases get state financial assistance and support. There needs to be a whole re think on the removals process and a way of dealing with those failed asylum seekers who simply refuse to comply with the travel document interview, knowing full well that nothing will happen to them.

since 2007 the UK Governemnt has been trying to resolve the "legacy cases" of failed asylum seekers, some 450,000 cases are included, most if these if not all have been refused asylum, but cannot be removed because of teh travel document problems. Sadly the vast majority of these case will end up having their decisions reversed and will be grated Indefinate Leave to Remain, leave outside the immigration rules. So the situation is that if your a failed asylum seeker all you have to do is lie about your name and DoB and you can be assured that your removal from the UK is impossible.

This is the issue Mr Cameron needs to sort out, as its now a critical problem that wont go away.

To be honest, my view of the whole asylum issue is that is has been abused since it's inception. Many of the so called asylum seekers passed through several other states to get here, yet made no attempt to stay in the first friendly country they entered. It was used as nothing more than an excuse to get to the UK for it's wonderful benefits packages and lax systems.
The immigration from some EU member states was also out of control - Poland as an example - but at least many of them take the time to speak the language, work and try to fit in, whereas many others create only ghettos of their fellow countrymen and make no effort at all to integrate into society. That is what causes a lot of the resentment from members of the public.

It was interesting to see a programme a while ago on Tv, where they took several British unemployed folks and tried to put them to work doing the jobs many of the immigrants do. Some did not even bother to turn up, and those that did, in some cases, were a waste of time and space. Needless to say, the employers were quite open about their preference in hiring immigrant workers rather than some of the domestic wasters.

More racism.

If an ordinary person said this, they would call them "bigoted", lol.

reply to post by Britguy


Yes I understand were you are coming from, the vast majority of asylum cases that I have had expierence with have been refused and found to be clearly unfounded. The problem that we have is the removal of the failed asylum seekers, unless this issue is sorted out or someway is found to ensure that failed asylum seekers can be removed from the UK we will remain in the position were we have thousands and closer to hundreds of thousands of people in the UK after the courts have ruled that they do not qualify for asylum.

I am aware of those who travel through other countries in order to come to the UK, and you are correct to a certain extent on what you say, they have passed what are safe countries just to get here. But there people do not get state benefits from the DWP, and they have no permission to work, due to the ECHR and the UN1951 convention the UK Goverment is required to provide accomodation and support whilst an asylum application is awaiting a final decision.

They will be placed into accomodation porvided by our stakeholders which we will pay for, and the will be gien either financial support in cash or in vouchers. When the case is concluded and asylum is refused this support is terminated, but due to loop holes in the system a failed asylum seeker can appeal the decision to refuse by submitting further representations, such as new evidence that the wish to be considered in their asylum claim that was not considerd during the initial asylum application, this results in the support being started again until the appeal or further representations have been decided.

It should be noted that there is no limit to the number of further representations a failed asylum seeker can submit, but they can only appeal to the court once for a reconsideration, and can submit only one Judicial Review. If they ask for the Judicial Review it can take anything up to a year for the case to be heard in the courts.

Well to get some numbers for your thread.

From this link-Migration
Emigration reaches record high in 2008

According to these stats, there has been a continual increase in both immigration and emigration.

The number of people leaving the UK for 12 months or more reached a record high in 2008, with an estimated 427,000 people emigrating. This was up from 341,000 in 2007 and 398,000 in 2006. This rise was as a result of a 50 per cent increase in
non-British citizens emigrating from 169,000 in 2007 to 255,000 in 2008. Just over half of the 86,000 increase were citizens of the
A8 Accession countries which joined the EU in 2004.

An estimated 590,000 people arrived to live in the UK in 2008, the second highest figure on record after 596,000 in 2006. This compared with 574,000 in 2007 and represents a continuation of the level of immigration seen since 2004. Of all immigrants 505,000 (86 per cent) were non-British citizens in 2008.

Net migration, the difference between immigration and emigration, decreased from 233,000 in 2007 to 163,000 as a result of increased emigration.

From this link-CONTROL OF IMMIGRATION: QUARTERLY STATISTICAL SUMMARY,
UNITED KINGDOM
OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2009

BORDER CONTROL
• In Q4 2009, the overall number of visas issued was 423,595, an increase of 16 per
cent compared with Q4 2008 (364,060). 375,040 were issued to main applicants
and 48,555 to dependants.
ASYLUM
• The number of applications for asylum, excluding dependants, was 30 per cent
lower in Q4 2009 (4,765) compared with Q4 2008 (6,775).
• In Q4 2009, 6,400 initial asylum decisions were made, excluding dependants, an
increase of 36 per cent compared with Q4 2008 (4,700). 77 per cent of initial
decisions were refusals, 13 per cent were grants of asylum and 10 per cent were
grants of Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave.
ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE
• In Q4 2009, 16,340 persons were removed or departed voluntarily from the UK, 3
per cent lower than in Q4 2008 (16,820). There was a fall of 8 per cent to 2,605 for
those leaving who had claimed asylum (including dependants) and a decrease of 2
per cent to 13,735 for non-asylum cases.

Wow, I wish the US had numbers in the thousands instead of in the hundreds of thousands.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


I thought Cameron had said he would tighten up the law with regards to people coming into the UK from outside the EU? What about those coming from inside the EU???