A crackdown on immigrants gaining British citizenship will be unveiled today by the UK’s Home Office (interior ministry) in what will be seen as the latest step in controversial government moves to tackle racial tensions during a recession.
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas is to outline details of how immigrants would be expected to “earn” a British passport by accumulating points for voluntary work, speaking English, paying taxes or having useful skills. Being willing to live in parts of the country where skills shortages are high is also likely to gain points.
Crucially, the move to a points-based system — rather than the current near-automatic right to citizenship for anyone who has lived in the UK for five years without a criminal record — would allow the government to raise or lower the hurdles as they choose, depending on economic and political circumstances.
“We are going to be tougher about people becoming citizens. There won’t be an automatic right any longer, and the link between work and citizenship is effectively broken,” a senior Home Office source said.
The move is to be followed in the autumn by a review of the points-based system for temporary immigrants, expected to lead to restrictions on work permits for skilled workers coming from outside the EU to fill job shortages.
The government’s migration advisory committee has been asked to review the system in light of the economic slump and is also considering whether some occupations previously considered to have shortages, such as chefs, should be taken off the list.
Keith Best of the Immigration Advisory Service said it was now clear that the government was toughening its stance before a spring election campaign.
“I have no doubt the message has gone out loud and clear to the Home Office, to deliver lower immigration figures before the next election,” Best said. “I think [Prime Minister] Gordon Brown knew what he was doing when he came out with that line about British jobs for British workers. I think it’s regrettable, but that is less important to a government that is desperately trying to find ways of staying in office.”
Brown’s pledge — and an announcement last month that more priority could be given to long-standing residents when allocating public housing — were attacked by some as pandering to the far right.
A Home Office spokesman declined to comment on the plans, but said: “The points based system has already proved to be a powerful tool for controlling migration for the benefit of both British people and the economy.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia