Talking policy with Michael Fallon MP
Well, Tuesday is shaping up as a big day. I have been granted an audience with the Conservative Member of Parliament for Sevenoaks, one Michael Fallon, at his offices in the Palace of Westminster.I hope to discuss some of the finer points of the Tory immigration policy with Mr Fallon, since there’s an above average chance that his party will be setting the agenda by the time my current UK Visa expires in 2011. Top of the list will be their position on retrospective changes to immigration policy – one of Labour’s favourite tactics of late.
I’m interested to hear any advice on potential arguments I could put forward. Obviously, I will be taking the position that retrospective changes are unfair and shouldn’t be part of the Conservative policy at all – however, if there’s on thing that’s going to lose them their majority faster than you can say “I hate Gordon Brown”, appearing to be soft on immigration would be it. Whichever government comes into power in 2010 is going to have to make reducing the total level of immigration into the UK a key point of policy. Call it sensible, call it kneejerk, whatever. Political expediency will demand it nonetheless.
Fact is, though, that as a skilled economic migrant, one makes a clear decision to make another country your home and it costs a lot to do so. It costs you money and it costs you time. There is also a clear opportunity cost, since spending the time acquiring British citizenship means that you aren’t spending that same time working towards citizenship of Australia, Canada, or anywhere else. Needless to say, I’m coming at this from the very South African perspective of wanting my children to have passports that will get them a little bit further in the world than their South African ones will.
So let’s say you’ve been here for three or four years, paying your taxes, speaking English, integrating into the community and not behaving anti-socially… is it at all acceptable for the government of the day to turn around and say “we’ve changed our minds… due to a set of criteria that we never communicated to you at the time you came here (because they did not yet exist) we have decided that you are no longer eligible to apply for permanent residence”? The basis of my discussion with Mr Fallon will be that it clearly isn’t and I would hope that the Tory policy would be fair in this regard.
What do you think? Any other salient points, either for or against?
Can you let him know that it would be nice if my 3 yrs bachelor degree should at least earn SOME points on the skilled immigrant point calculator!
Charles, the upping of the requirement from bachelors to masters was again just a kneejerk reaction so that the government could prove they were “doing something”. The suggestion that the new British system is anything like the Australian one is a complete bloody joke. Your lot have about 30 different categories in which they award points – it’s a wide-ranging assessment and people with various mixes of skills can get in and contribute. Here it’s just about education and earnings and the only way to tweak it to make it “tougher” is to increase either of those criteria.
I got in JUST in time.
Yeah I missed out due to my own laziness so I’ll cop that one sweet.
The education part is wrong. We in IT all know that the industry moves so fast, your education soon becomes irrelevant. Having been for several interviews since I began working, I’ve not been asked once about what I studied. What they think is relevant is my experience and my potential. If theres a demand for people like us in this country (which there must be because I’m so damn busy!), then surely that’s all that should matter!
one of the things that has me up in arms at the moment is the new “points system” they want to introduce for when you apply for provisional citizenship. Apparently, they want to look at whether you’ve earned a further degree in the time that you’ve been here. It’s kneejerk and makes no sense – as if to say that higher education is the only thing that actually contributes to this country. All it is, in reality, is the easiest thing to measure.
Question Rob – are you allowed to study in the UK if you are not on a student visa? In which case the further education point is proved irrelevant… I was under the impression that if you are a on a student visa you may not work, and vice verse. Unless this has changed?
I actually thought that you had UK citizenship through ancestral visa? Can you not claim that?
I really think that they should be looking at a person’s overall skill set and ability to contribute to government coffers (ie taxes). For instance if you are an archaeological PHD you are surely going to contribute less to the UK economy than some one who has demonstrable skills coupled with an ability to convert those skills into earning, and therefor taxes… Perhaps economic migrants (what else to name them / you) should have to forego certain benefits for a period of time after taking citizenship?
There is of course also the company sponsored approach to relocation / immigration. Although this one might backfire on you as govt may request companies to pay additional taxes to employ non-citizens. Which is just BEE with another name!
Not sure what else, but as both the conservative and labour parties are talking about increasing taxes and decreasing costs (benefits) this is perhaps a route that they would look at?
Rach, I believe that if you are on a Highly Skilled visa, you can do pretty much whatever you like in your spare time, as long as you continue to meet the criteria for renewal – i.e. you’ll need to ensure that you keep earning at least £45k per annum (or whatever it is). So you can study if you can fit it in around your work and family commitments – and, of course, if you can afford the fees, which are always going to be a lot higher for a non-citizen.