The UK on Tuesday announced new post-Brexit immigration rules that would make it tougher for EU citizens, but easier for people from many other nations, to move to the UK starting next year.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government said the new rules would “open up the UK to the brightest and the best from around the world,” while ending “the reliance on cheap, low-skilled labor coming into the country.”
However, UK employers said the radical changes could bring about a labor crisis for sectors such as health and social care.
The UK’s exit from the EU last month after 47 years of membership is triggering the biggest change to the nation’s immigration rules for decades.
During the UK’s EU membership — and until a post-Brexit transition period runs out on Dec. 31 — citizens of any of the EU’s 27 nations can freely live and work in the UK.
More than 3 million EU citizens currently living in the UK are entitled to stay, but from Jan. 1 next year, new immigration rules would apply to EU and non-EU citizens alike.
The UK’s new “points-based immigration system” would assess prospective immigrants on a range of skills, qualifications, salaries or professions, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said.
People hoping to work in the UK would need a job offer paying at least £25,600 (US$33,226) a year.
That is less than the current £30,000 set for non-EU immigrants, a figure that is more than the nation’s average annual wage.
Prospective immigrants who earn less might be able to enter the UK if they have other skills.
Skilled immigrants are currently required to have a university degree, but in future would only need the equivalent of the UK’s pre-university “A levels.”
The government says the new rules would cut net immigration from its current level of more than 200,000 people a year.
However, it has abandoned a pledge made by previous Conservative governments to cut the UK’s annual net immigration figure to below 100,000 a year.
The immigration plan still has to be passed by parliament — which is highly likely since the Conservatives have a large majority.
The government said it would come up with specific proposals for scientists, graduates, healthcare workers and those in the agricultural sector.
However, there is no specific immigration route for what the government calls “low-skilled workers” — a category it says includes 70 percent of the more than 1 million EU citizens who have moved to the UK since 2004.
Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens currently hold jobs in sectors including farming, healthcare and restaurants that are relatively low paid.
Employers in those industries have said there would be worker shortages under the tighter immigration rules.
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