• October 15, 2023

Home Secretary Suella Braverman plans to hike salary requirements for incoming migrants

Home Secretary Suella Braverman plans to hike salary requirements for incoming migrants

LONDON Oct 15: Home Secretary Suella Braverman reportedly plans to increase the salary requirements for immigrants looking to resettle in the United Kingdom.

According to the Daily Mail, those looking to move to the UK now have to earn £26,200, which is 20% lower than the median salary of £33,280. As part of a clampdown on migration, the Home Secretary wants to lobby to increase the figure.

Braverman reportedly wants to cut down on the number of unskilled workers and families entering into the UK. She also admits the “points system hasn’t worked.”

A Home Office source told The Sunday Times: “Our points-based system hasn’t really operated in a way that we promised in our manifesto. The prime minister accepts that net migration is too high. He has been working closely with the Home Office on it.”

The points-based system, likened to one used in Australia, was brought in by former Home Secretary Priti Patel in 2020. It was designed to give EU nationals similar treatment to the rest of the world, a post-Brexit measure.

It is now believed Braverman wants to reduce the migration numbers before the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures are released. At the last General Election the Conservative Party pledged to reduce net migration.

But latest figures showed it had reached a record high last year. The Sunday Times source did not confirm whether the influx of migrants from Ukraine and Hong Kong had reaches its peak, which left open the possibility that net migration could increase even more.
In a bid to reduce migration numbers, the Home Secretary announced in May that students would be banned from bringing their family members to Britain.

The proposals would see a limited number of those coming to the UK allowed to bring partners and children from January next year. Those who are allowed to bring dependants would have to be on post-graduate research programmes.

In 2022, around 486,000 student visas were issued, up from 269,000 in 2019. Last year however the number of student visas givent o dependants alone was 136,000 – a huge increase from 2019, where 16,000 were reportedly given out.

It is believed Braverman wanted to go further, but was blocked by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan who were concerned about the economic impact of a harsher clampdown.

Last month the Home Secretary warned immigration posed an “existential threat” to the West. In a speech in Washington, she said migration had been “too much, too quick”.

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