UK Immigration: New Laws Discriminate
21/04/2008
With the new tier 1 Immigration system being rolled out in full force, calls to address aspects of the system viewed as discriminatory are rife.
The UK's wish to be a meritocracy, promoting equality in terms of nationality, age and sex, has come under fire as the tier 1 system is seen as undermining these three exact issues, as Liam Clifford from globalvisas.com says, "the system is designed to discriminate in virtually every possible way."
Through the new act overseas nationals will be discriminated against in terms of both indirect discrimination which occurs when a rule or condition, which is applied equally to everyone can be met by a considerably smaller proportion of people from a particular group as well as direct discrimination which is when someone is treated less favorably than another on grounds of age, disability, gender, nationality, religion or sexual orientation.
This point based system is based on points attributed to age, income and degree level. The new system is believed to discriminate against all those who are older and more experienced but do not have a degree. The new system does not take into account work experience while rather focuses on degree levels.
"People of all ages have a role to play in our work force and diversity should be encouraged. And a degree does not reflect a productive member of society. ," says Clifford of www.globalvisas.com.
He adds that proving ones age may also be an issue as in 2006 alone the UN reported 51 million births had gone unregistered with 45% of them being in Asia.
A person is also awarded points on their ability to speak English. This clearly discriminates against those people from countries who do not speak English as a first language yet the individual may be fluent in the language. These people will be asked to sit English exams before traveling to the UK while people from "English" speaking countries will not require sitting this test.
It is believed that the English test should be undertaken by everyone. Ajay the Director of www.globalvisas.co.in states that "Indian nationals who make up the majority of skilled workers traveling to the UK should be measured on their achievements and not on their English until they have had a chance to prove themselves in the UK."
As this debate rages on more and more skilled workers from foreign lands attempt to enter the UK despite these new constraints.
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