UK Immigration Groups Push for ‘Balanced Migration’
12/09/2008 by Bryan Palmer
Following the news of amendments to the UK immigration Tier 1 jobs list for areas in need of skilled migrants, a flurry of parliamentary officials have spoken out about their concerns for the system and the immigration stature of the UK as a whole.
With government statistics suggesting that about seven million more people will come to live in Britain by 2031, a number of immigration groups and politicians have felt the need to further express their hopes for a balanced migration program.
Although immigration in the UK is rapidly increasing, the number of UK nationals choosing to live and work abroad is also on the rise. It is this movement which some MP's feel should be capitalised on and that there should be a steady correlation between the two, ultimately resulting in UK immigration cap.
In response to the increasing pressure for a balanced migration system the UK Home Office say that "Migration is good for employment and the economy - new migrants contributed £6 billion to the UK economy in 2006 alone. All migrants must speak English and obey the law if they want to gain citizenship."
It is for these reasons that many are critical of the new Tier1 points based visa, the new process intends to limit migration for overseas workers wishing to work in the UK, to those which are deemed as in demand by the country in industries experiencing a skills shortage.
However, the new-cross party parliamentary group which has been put in place to campaign for balanced migration says that the current points-based system for non EU migrants selected foreign workers who were most useful to the economy but did not limit immigration. They said that only a small minority of migrants should be allowed to remain in Britain after the expiry of their four-year work permits.
The launch of this group, which consists of a number of labour and conservative MPs, has cleverly been planned to co-inside with the release of a poll by YouGov suggesting that significant cuts in immigration are backed by a large majority of supporters of all political parties.
Further concern has been expressed by immigration think tank, Migration Watch UK; Chairman of the group, Sir Andrew Green said on the topical issue that "Concern about the present massive uncontrolled level of immigration is not a partisan issue. I hope that all the political parties will now get the message and engage in a constructive debate about balanced migration."
Immigration to the UK can be a very economically rewarding process as migrants can help drive labour markets and bring other benefits to a country. In response to this thought, the groups for balanced migration say that they recognise this; however they believe that their proposals would greatly reduce pressure on public services, infrastructure and the environment and would enable the economy to stay competitive.
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