Different factions of the UK Government are engaged in a skirmish over the country’s immigration laws.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has warned Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to limit immigration to the UK, or else risk forgetting “how to do things for ourselves”, according to a report by Sky News. Braverman believes that jobs like driving lorries can be done by British workers more than it currently is.
On the flipside, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is saying that an increase in immigration will be part of its solution to solve a food crisis in the UK that is seeing understaffing and spoiled produce in the food industry.
Jeremy Hunt and Gillian Keegan have also been praised by some for “watering down” a policy which was looking to ban one-year international masters students’ family members getting UK visas.
This all comes amid claims that annual migration numbers, released in June, could double last year’s figure of 500,000. The Guardian has also reported that multiple organisations are accusing Rishi Sunak’s government of having a “racist” immigration policy which puts some nationalities above others, with Sudanese migrants particularly hard done by.
Care Home Professional broke news on 12 May with a viral story bearing the headline “Home Office ‘cracking down’ on overseas recruitment”. A care sector solicitor informed Care Home Professional that a number of their clients were reporting finding it increasingly difficult to process visa applications for workers from abroad due to an increasingly stringent set of questions from the Home Office.
On whichever side of the fence you sit regarding the immigration debate, it is irrefutable that there are certain sectors that are heavily reliant on overseas workers. These sectors – like food and agriculture, as well as care – cannot afford for the government to clamp down on overseas recruitment. Care in particular is crumbling as it is, even with the thousands of international workers brought in annually. Take that away, or make it more a more difficult process, and you hamstring care homes and home care services even further; take it away and it could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Close the borders and you effectively close hundreds of care homes too.
It would be a crime for the government to not even consider a special dispensation for those sectors which are especially reliant on overseas immigration.
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