News
Coalition to Limit Non-EU migration
30-06-2010
Throughout the election campaign, the Conservatives promised that, were they to win, they would introduce a quota system into UK immigration law. Now, over two months into the new Coalition Government, the proposal to cap immigration into the UK remains.
What does this mean for businesses?
Throughout the election campaign, the Conservatives promised that, were they to win, they would introduce a quota system into
An election promise kept:
In its recent publication, ‘The Coalition: our Programme for Government’, the government states:
“that immigration has enriched our culture and strengthened our economy, but that it must be controlled so that people have confidence in the system. We also recognise that to ensure cohesion and protect our public services, we need to introduce a cap on immigration and reduce the number of non-EU immigrants.”
And in order to achieve this, they propose:
“an annual limit on the number of non-EU economic migrants being admitted into the
But how will it work?
There has been no indication, as yet, as to what the annual limit would be or how the government intends to implement such a quota.
The proposal gives rise to more questions than answers. What would happen, for example, if the annual limit was reached before the end of any given year? Does this mean that businesses would not be able to bring in, or hire, anyone from outside the EU for the rest of the year? What effect will this have on businesses?
The government has said that it will undertake consultation with businesses in order to answer these questions. However, when this consultation will take place, and the format it will take, remains unknown.
It is also unclear how this proposed quota system will change (if at all) the current (and relatively new) route into the
There is much that is unclear as to the future of economic immigration into the