Revy
13th November 2009, 09:16
Link (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/12/noneuropeans-shutout-from-skilled-jobs)
More than 250,000 skilled engineering, care and catering jobs are to be closed to non-European overseas workers next year as a result of Gordon Brown's immigration speech today.
The prime minister promised that these sectors would be taken off the official list of shortage occupations as soon as employers and training bodies can provide sufficient qualified recruits.
In his first major speech on immigration for 18 months, he also promised to clamp down on widespread abuse of the student visa system.
An official review will look at raising the minimum level of course for which foreign students can get a visa, introducing mandatory English language tests and blocking overseas students from working part-time in temporary jobs that could be filled by young Britons.
After the speech the Home Office published a draft immigration bill which is designed to be enacted after the general election. The 243-page bill – which would be the eighth major piece of immigration and asylum (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/immigration) legislation since Labour came to power in 1997 – is designed to "simplify and consolidate" the baffling jigsaw of bills and rule changes introduced since the bedrock 1971 Immigration Act.
The bill also proposes sweeping changes in immigration procedures, including the replacement of the deportation process with a general power to expel failed asylum seekers and illegal migrants. They would also be banned from returning to Britain for a fixed period or indefinitely.
A Home Office consultation paper on welfare support for asylum seekers also published today underpins these proposals with plans to limit housing and benefit payments to three months for those told to leave the country. Families who have been told to leave would have to live in "full-board" Borders Agency accommodation and replacing all cash payments with a plastic pre-paid card.
The further changes to the points-based immigration system outlined by Brown involve implementing recommendations from the government's migration advisory committee. From this autumn, shortage occupation jobs will have to advertised for four weeks rather than the current two before they can be filled by non-European skilled workers.
The previous work permit regime covered about 700,000 jobs in shortage occupations. Since the migration committee was set up last year, it has recommended a cut to about 500,000. The latest recommendations covering engineering roles, skilled chefs and care workers would remove a further 290,000 British jobs.
The number of these jobs filled by non-European workers, however, is very much smaller, with only 30,000 coming to work in Britain between November 2008 and August 2009. The door was closed to unskilled workers from outside the European Economic area when the points-based system was introduced. Now, step by step, the door is also being closed to skilled workers from outside Europe.
The prime minister said realistic timetables needed to be developed for adequate training to take place before these jobs could be taken off the shortage lists.
"As growth returns I want to see rising levels of skills, wages and employment among those resident here – rather than employers having to resort to recruiting people from abroad," said Brown.
The Conservatives said that the PM's speech had a hollow ring to it. "This is the Government that tried to cover up a deliberate policy of increasing immigration and the prime minister's comments show that he has no idea about how to deal with the whole question of immigration now," said the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling.
The Liberal Democrats' Chris Huhne said Brown was trying to shut the stable door long after the horse had bolted and argued that the government's mismanagement of the immigration system had long ago undermined the country's liberal attitude to the issue.
The Refugee Council said the consultation on asylum support showed the government was determined to make life as miserable as it could for those who got to Britain. Jonathan Ellis, the organisation's head of policy, said: "It has proposed to re-enact the widely condemned section 55, making refugees homeless and destitute, that was ruled illegal by the courts four years ago. Not only that, the government proposes that families who are unable to return home will be refused cash support, and forced to rely on a payment card.
"This makes a mockery of the government's claim to be safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children seeking asylum as it announced last week."
The Home Office denied any change of policy on section 55, insisting it would not be used to make anybody destitute in the way condemned by the law lords.
Refuge and Migrant Justice said that buried in the bill was provision to give ministers the power to overrule bail decisions made by judges in immigration and asylum cases.Are you happy, No2EU? (http://www.no2eu.com/workersrights.html) I'm not expecting the jokesters behind that to organize in defense of the free movement of people. Their line was that "foreign workers take the jobs of local workers". Local, of course, being a euphemism for British, they didn't want their xenophobia to be too apparent, even though it was.
You cannot criticize Fortress Europe while upholding Fortress Britain. You must criticize both. I do not expect the Eurosceptics of the British left, who on the one hand used No2EU to criticize the EU's policy of the free movement of labor within itself, to then defend the rights of immigrants from outside the EU to work and live in the EU.
I was astounded that such a nationalistic monstrosity as No2EU had been formed by self-described socialists. And their tactic failed miserably. Their marches against the EU probably just reinforced the right-wing Eurosceptic parties' popularity. While the Socialist Labour Party got a tremendous amount of votes on a socialist platform. Despite any criticisms you may have of that party, you could try and learn a thing or two.
More than 250,000 skilled engineering, care and catering jobs are to be closed to non-European overseas workers next year as a result of Gordon Brown's immigration speech today.
The prime minister promised that these sectors would be taken off the official list of shortage occupations as soon as employers and training bodies can provide sufficient qualified recruits.
In his first major speech on immigration for 18 months, he also promised to clamp down on widespread abuse of the student visa system.
An official review will look at raising the minimum level of course for which foreign students can get a visa, introducing mandatory English language tests and blocking overseas students from working part-time in temporary jobs that could be filled by young Britons.
After the speech the Home Office published a draft immigration bill which is designed to be enacted after the general election. The 243-page bill – which would be the eighth major piece of immigration and asylum (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/immigration) legislation since Labour came to power in 1997 – is designed to "simplify and consolidate" the baffling jigsaw of bills and rule changes introduced since the bedrock 1971 Immigration Act.
The bill also proposes sweeping changes in immigration procedures, including the replacement of the deportation process with a general power to expel failed asylum seekers and illegal migrants. They would also be banned from returning to Britain for a fixed period or indefinitely.
A Home Office consultation paper on welfare support for asylum seekers also published today underpins these proposals with plans to limit housing and benefit payments to three months for those told to leave the country. Families who have been told to leave would have to live in "full-board" Borders Agency accommodation and replacing all cash payments with a plastic pre-paid card.
The further changes to the points-based immigration system outlined by Brown involve implementing recommendations from the government's migration advisory committee. From this autumn, shortage occupation jobs will have to advertised for four weeks rather than the current two before they can be filled by non-European skilled workers.
The previous work permit regime covered about 700,000 jobs in shortage occupations. Since the migration committee was set up last year, it has recommended a cut to about 500,000. The latest recommendations covering engineering roles, skilled chefs and care workers would remove a further 290,000 British jobs.
The number of these jobs filled by non-European workers, however, is very much smaller, with only 30,000 coming to work in Britain between November 2008 and August 2009. The door was closed to unskilled workers from outside the European Economic area when the points-based system was introduced. Now, step by step, the door is also being closed to skilled workers from outside Europe.
The prime minister said realistic timetables needed to be developed for adequate training to take place before these jobs could be taken off the shortage lists.
"As growth returns I want to see rising levels of skills, wages and employment among those resident here – rather than employers having to resort to recruiting people from abroad," said Brown.
The Conservatives said that the PM's speech had a hollow ring to it. "This is the Government that tried to cover up a deliberate policy of increasing immigration and the prime minister's comments show that he has no idea about how to deal with the whole question of immigration now," said the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling.
The Liberal Democrats' Chris Huhne said Brown was trying to shut the stable door long after the horse had bolted and argued that the government's mismanagement of the immigration system had long ago undermined the country's liberal attitude to the issue.
The Refugee Council said the consultation on asylum support showed the government was determined to make life as miserable as it could for those who got to Britain. Jonathan Ellis, the organisation's head of policy, said: "It has proposed to re-enact the widely condemned section 55, making refugees homeless and destitute, that was ruled illegal by the courts four years ago. Not only that, the government proposes that families who are unable to return home will be refused cash support, and forced to rely on a payment card.
"This makes a mockery of the government's claim to be safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children seeking asylum as it announced last week."
The Home Office denied any change of policy on section 55, insisting it would not be used to make anybody destitute in the way condemned by the law lords.
Refuge and Migrant Justice said that buried in the bill was provision to give ministers the power to overrule bail decisions made by judges in immigration and asylum cases.Are you happy, No2EU? (http://www.no2eu.com/workersrights.html) I'm not expecting the jokesters behind that to organize in defense of the free movement of people. Their line was that "foreign workers take the jobs of local workers". Local, of course, being a euphemism for British, they didn't want their xenophobia to be too apparent, even though it was.
You cannot criticize Fortress Europe while upholding Fortress Britain. You must criticize both. I do not expect the Eurosceptics of the British left, who on the one hand used No2EU to criticize the EU's policy of the free movement of labor within itself, to then defend the rights of immigrants from outside the EU to work and live in the EU.
I was astounded that such a nationalistic monstrosity as No2EU had been formed by self-described socialists. And their tactic failed miserably. Their marches against the EU probably just reinforced the right-wing Eurosceptic parties' popularity. While the Socialist Labour Party got a tremendous amount of votes on a socialist platform. Despite any criticisms you may have of that party, you could try and learn a thing or two.