UK immigration: what are the alternatives to a point-based system?
At the RSN conference today there was almost unanimous agreement that migrant labour is a key component underpinning the viability of rural economies. This article tells us:
The decision by leading leave campaigners such as Boris Johnson to endorse Nigel Farage’s policy of an Australian points-based system for a post-Brexit British approach to immigration was one of the bigger surprises of the referendum campaign.
For, as experts such as the Migration Observatory have pointed out, points-based systems have been used by countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand with liberal migration policies looking to admit more people than come under company-sponsored work permits alone.
On one calculation, introducing a scaled-up Australian system in Britain could actually double annual immigration to the UK to 1.5 million or more.
So it is no wonder that on Monday at her G20 press conference in Hangzhou, the prime minister decisively rejected a points-based immigration system.
She argued that the “tick-box” approach of allowing in everyone who meets the criteria was a recipe for abuse, citing the example of “bogus overseas students”. She said that a new immigration policy would involve Britain “regaining an element of control” over EU migrants coming into the country.