The new UK immigration cap does not appear to be as straight-forward as first conceived. The temporary cap that will come into force next april and last until next year is a pre-spoiler for a review on UK immigration practices and an imminent reduction on the numbers, however, how far that reduction will be is yet to be decided, and the temporary limit will serve as an indication on how far they can go with it.

The news that intra company transfers will not be affected serves as an indication that the government are willing to be flexible in terms of allowing companies the right to explore the option of hiring foreign labour if absolutely necessary.

This was also coupled with revelations that the numbers entering the UK on tier 1 UK visas and tier 2 UK visas are in fact not as high as was thought. Statistics sourced by the Guardian reveal that fewer than 7,000 tier 1 UK visas were issued in the first three months of 2010 and 17,000 in the same period for tier 2 UK visas. When this is compared to the numbers of student visas being issued the numbers seem slightly at odds – 54,000 people entered the UK on student visas for the first three months of 2010.

The speculation of what this all means to business, migrant workers and those that are already here continues with the truth of the matter that no-one really knows quite yet. The fact that the government are thinking about honouring there call to arms for voters of ‘limiting migration to tens and not hundreds of thousands’ is noble, although how they go about that is clearly yet to be decided.

Business is obviously a clear priority of the conservative party and it would be hard to imagine the powers that be risking jeopardising the country’s continued recovery with keeping the promise they made on immigration to the UK. If they are to reduce numbers then a clear road to travel would be emulating what the Australians have recently implemented in their own country, that of restricting the routes for permanent migration of studying in the country. Obviously this wouldn’t be popular with those students wishing to immigrate to the UK and there may well be a reduction in the numbers applying for UK student visas because of this, as is likely in Australia. However, it would more than likely result in a keeping of the Tory pledge to lower UK immigration to the tens of thousands.