The UK government has implemented stricter salary requirements for visas in an attempt to reduce migration, with most people wanting to work in the UK having to apply through the points-based system (PBS) and earn at least £38,700, nearly 50% higher than the previous minimum of £26,200. This threshold does not apply to some jobs like those in health and social care, as well as teachers on national pay scales, although overseas care workers are prohibited from bringing family dependents with them. In 2022, a record number of 745,000 people came to the UK, which was deemed too high by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Plans to raise the minimum income threshold for family visas to £38,700 were also proposed but have since been dropped to £29,000 due to warnings that the rules risked separating families.
Applicants need to earn 70 points to be eligible for a skilled worker visa through the PBS, and employers used to be able to pay foreign workers 80% of the usual “going rate” for positions on the shortage occupation list, set up to help employers fill vacancies in key sectors. The UK government has cut this number of positions on the list and abolished the rule in an attempt to address labor shortages. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 39% of the 968,000 people that arrived in the UK from outside the EU in the year ending June 2023 came to study, 33% to work, and 9% for humanitarian reasons.
Since January 2024, international postgraduate students are no longer allowed to bring dependants with them unless their course is designated as a research program. However, students who have completed their degrees can stay in the UK for up to two years (three years for those with doctoral degrees) to work under a graduate visa. The number of seasonal worker visas made available for 2023 and 2024 is between 45,000 and 55,000, as well as another 2,000 for poultry workers, but the workers must be paid the national minimum wage.
With Brexit, the freedom of movement between EU and UK citizens ended on 1 January 2021, leading to a net EU migration of -86,000 in the 12 months to June 2023, while net migration of non-EU nationals was 768,000, and that of British nationals was -10,000. The UK’s Royal College of Nursing and other groups criticized the UK government’s new salary requirements, lack of attention to labor shortages, and insufficient measures to address family separation in the rules
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