United Kingdom Enacts Five New Laws to Reduce Immigrant Inflow

Monday, 4 December 2023- To lower the annual number of immigrants entering the United Kingdom, the British government implemented new policies.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement on Monday that the new policies are intended to reduce the number of immigrants entering the United Kingdom by over 300,000, with a significant proportion of those immigrants coming from Kenya.

The United States of America (USA), with 157,000 migrants from Kenya, is home to the greatest number of Kenyans, followed by the United Kingdom (UK) with 139,000, according to United Nations migration data from 2020.

Cleverly presented a five-point strategy in the announcement that would go into effect on January 1, 2024. which included

Annual Charges

Cleverly revealed that the annual fee that foreign employees must now pay to access the National Health Service (NHS) has been raised by the British government from Ksh121,033 to Ksh198,424. In the UK, everyone has access to cheap medical care through the National Health Service (NHS), which is funded by taxes.

Graduate Visas

Ultimately, a Migration Advisory Committee was appointed by the British government to thoroughly examine the graduate visa program and recommend strategies for limiting its availability.

Family Dependants

Family members will no longer be permitted to accompany overseas carers. Cleverly claims that in the year ending in September 2023, more than 100,000 family members traveled to the UK with caregivers.

This raised doubts about the immigrants’ capacity to care for their families and, in essence, avoid being a financial drain on the government.

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The alarm was recently raised by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about the immigration inflow, which needs to be decreased to sustainable levels.

Eligibility for Work Visa

The minimum income requirement for obtaining a skilled worker visa in the UK has been raised from Ksh5 million to Ksh7.4 million.

This implies that an individual must make a minimum of Ksh7 million a year to be eligible for a skilled work visa.

At present, there are five categories for the UK visa: Tier 1 is reserved for High-Value Migrants, such as experts; Tier 2 is for skilled workers; Tier 3 is for unskilled workers; Tier 4 is for students; and Tier 5 is for contractors.

But as was deftly pointed out, the health and care industry will be spared from the hike.

Shortage Occupation List

The announcement was made by the Home Secretary to remove the shortage occupation list to create a fair and impartial environment for both foreign and British workers.

Jobs where there is a greater demand than supply in the labour market are included in the list of shortage occupations.

Employers favored hiring foreign workers under the previous legislation because it permitted them to earn 20% less than British workers.

The list will be replaced with a new immigration list with the same rates for British citizens under the new regulations.