Potentially targeted nationalities include Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka The UK is keen to squeeze out students from the countries most likely to apply for asylum on arrival There is talk of further tightening access to career-advancing jobs within the graduate route
The anticipated measures, which were first reported in The Times yesterday and are thought to form part of an expected UK immigration white paper, will target people from countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka who are judged to be likely to overstay their allotted period or apply for asylum. It is unclear whether more countries will be subject to similar additional surveillance.
The plan is thought to be part of Labour’s crackdown on abuses of the system, such as applying for asylum as a “backdoor” route to staying in the UK. Therefore, individuals who fit this profile are more likely to have their visa applications rejected.
The Home Office is also expected to introduce further restrictions that will force foreign graduates to take up graduate-level jobs, determined by skill level rather than salary, if they want to remain in the UK after university, The Times said.
A Home Office spokesperson told PIE News that the Immigration White Paper “sets out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.”
“To address abuses by foreign nationals who enter the country on work or study visas and apply for asylum, we are building information on the profiles of these individuals to enable earlier identification,” they explained. “We are constantly reviewing our visa regime and will not hesitate to take action if we discover trends that could undermine our immigration rules.”
London Hire, which represents UK higher education institutions, told PIE that the alleged visa restrictions “risk being discriminatory”.
It further warned that they “risk being discriminatory, could be interpreted as an expedient response to Labor’s local election defeats, and could create additional regulatory burdens as opposed to carefully considered policies.”
“In an era of ‘go-to-growth’, governments should strengthen pathways to international talent, rather than sacrificing long-term economic interests for political expediency,” the newspaper said.
immigration white paper
The forthcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a roadmap for reducing the UK’s net immigration levels. This number is estimated to be 728,000 in the year ending June 2024, down significantly from 906,000 the previous year, partly due to the almost complete ban on international students bringing their dependents with them.
Speaking at last week’s Enroly event, Charlie Robinson, head of global mobility at Universities UK International (UUKi), acknowledged that the white paper’s “main aim” was to “significantly reduce” net migration levels, likely through a combination of a more restrictive approach to visas and strengthening domestic skills bases to reduce reliance on migrants.
“We expect to see some pretty tough trade-offs between the government’s economic growth goals and immigration policy priorities,” Robinson told delegates, adding that the Treasury is likely to estimate the impact of different visa policies “to counter these two competing policy priorities.”
And she warned that despite the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) last year reviewing the graduate route and recommending its continuation, UUKi was told “nothing is out of scope” and that graduate visas would be considered alongside family and work visas.
“But exactly what the scope of the white paper will be is still largely open to speculation,” she says.
Meanwhile, London Hire warned that further restrictions on international students in the UK would be “far-reaching and a departure from our growth mission”.
“We urge the Home Office, in collaboration with the Departments for Education, Treasury and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, to balance legitimate immigration concerns with recognition of the best benefits that international students bring to local communities and the economy.”
Against this background, the number of registered international students in the UK is decreasing, and the latest figures for 2023/24 are 730,000, down 30,000 from the previous year. For the second year in a row, postgraduate students continued to make up the majority of overseas admissions to the UK, accounting for almost 60% of the number.
Immigration has been a thorny issue in British politics for decades, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be keen for his party to take a tough stance on immigration, especially after the anti-Immigration Reform Party made huge gains in last week’s local elections.
Key stakeholders in the international education sector have repeatedly emphasized that international students should be excluded from net immigration figures, given that the vast majority leave the UK and return to their home countries.
However, participants at March’s PIE Live Europe received a stern warning from MAC chair Brian Bell, who stressed that governments were unlikely to give in to these demands.
“We should stop wasting time asking for international students to be excluded from immigration statistics. That’s not going to happen,” he said frankly.
