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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lycanthrope" data-source="post: 34908" data-attributes="member: 562">New rule in England requiring immigrants make $55,000 / year to stay in the country. Should we do this? I dont think its a bad idea....<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-17204297" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-17204297</a>[h=1]Immigrants 'have to earn £35,000' to settle - from 2016[/h]Migrant workers will need to earn at least £35,000 to qualify for settlement in the UK, says the Home Office.Home  Secretary Theresa May said the change - from April 2016 - would help  cut the number of non-Europeans and their dependants granted settlement  each year from 60,000 to 20,000.The pay threshold will apply to people wanting to remain permanently after more than five years working in the UK.Those who don't qualify will be ordered to leave the UK after six years.The  pay threshold is the first time that a British government has imposed  an economic test on the right to settlement in the UK. For decades,  settlement has been granted on the basis of length of time living in -  and ties to - the UK, recognising that people who have been living in  the country for five years have made it their permanent home.Prime  Minister David Cameron says he wants to reduce annual net migration to  "tens of thousands" from the current level of around 250,000.It  is aiming to bring the figure, which includes students and the families  of visa holders, to below 100,000 by 2015 - a year before the latest  restriction is due to come into force.[h=2]'Brightest and best'[/h]In  a written statement to Parliament, Mrs May said: "Until now, settlement  has been a virtually automatic consequence of five years' residence in  the UK as a skilled worker. Those who have settled have tended to be  less well paid and lower-skilled than those who have not.We argued  strongly that such international academics and researchers should be  made exempt from any pay threshold on the basis that their salaries are  not comparable to those of highly skilled migrants working in other  sectorsNicola Dandridge, Universities UK "And the volumes of migrant workers settling have reached record levels in recent years."According  to official figures, in 1997 fewer than 10,000 migrant workers and  their dependants were granted settlement, but by 2010 this had risen to  84,000.Mrs May said: "So in future, we will exercise control to ensure that only the brightest and best remain permanently."The  £35,000 earnings threshold will be waived for any "shortage  occupations" if official advisers tell ministers that the UK needs more  workers with skills or training.Scientists and researchers in PhD level jobs will also be exempt from the earnings test.Nicola  Dandridge of Universities UK, said: "The government has responded to  the concerns... by exempting PhD-level jobs from the new pay threshold  for settlement."We argued strongly that such international  academics and researchers should be made exempt from any pay threshold  on the basis that their salaries are not comparable to those of highly  skilled migrants working in other sectors."If we are to continue  to produce Nobel Prize-winning research and groundbreaking work, we must  offer a welcoming environment to the best academics from around the  world."The government says it will also restrict the arrival of  foreign domestic workers to those who are travelling with their  employers, such as diplomats or business people temporarily working in  the UK.Mrs May said: "We recognise that the ODW (overseas  domestic worker) routes can at times result in the import of abusive  employer/employee relationships to the UK."It is important that  those who use these routes to bring their staff here understand what is  and is not acceptable. So we will be strengthening pre-entry measures to  ensure that domestic workers and their employers understand their  respective rights and responsibilities."Under the new rules,  overseas domestic workers who come to the UK with their employer must  leave after six months. Those working in diplomats' households can stay  for up to five years. The workers will not be able to extend their stay,  switch employer, sponsor dependants or seek settlement.Shadow  home secretary Yvette Cooper said of the new salary cap: "People should  only be allowed to settle in this country under these rules if they can  pay their way, live by our rules and contribute value to our country. We  need strict controls, properly enforced, and all of the mainstream  parties should agree on that."However, there is still a massive  gap between the Tory-led Government's rhetoric and reality. New rules  will have no impact if they are not properly enforced."Migration 'bounce' warningUK  Independence Party home affairs spokesman, Gerard Batten MEP, said the  government was "posturing" on immigration because any measures cannot  apply to EU citizens.He said: "The solution is for Britain to  take back control of its immigration policy so that we can decide who we  admit, for how long, and under what conditions. We can only do that we  leave the EU and repudiate the European Court of Justice."The  government says it is making progress towards its plan to cut net  migration to tens of thousands a year - the balance between those  arriving and those leaving.But on Wednesday<a href="http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/commentary/net-migration-bounce" target="_blank">Oxford University experts predicted</a>that even if ministers hit the target by the end of the Parliament, net migration could very quickly "bounce" up again.Researchers  at the Migration Observatory said current cuts were affecting groups of  migrants who were less likely to stay in the UK for the long-term, such  as students.In turn, that meant that the UK would start  receiving proportionally more migrants who would want to settle for the  long-term than leave. If that happened, said the report, migration cuts  would "essentially evaporate" following 2015.</blockquote>

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