Work, work, work, work, work. After Brexit how you gonna’ work, work, work, work, work?

During the past few years an ‘Australian points-based system’ has become something of a buzzword in politics as we face our future outside of the EU. It goes alongside rhetoric about us only allowing in the brightest and best and ensuring economic migration to the UK specifically fills needs in our Labour market. Our needs, however, are very different to Australia. Australia tends to want to increase migration whereas our Government has been promising to reduce it. They admit around three times more people to their country a year than the UK.

All of this belies the fact that we have had, at least in name, a points-based system since 2008.

There used to be routes, such as the now defunct Tier 1 (General), that were close to the current Australian system. You could get points based on age, academic qualifications and income. This route closed to new applicants back in April 2015. It was seen as open to corruption and falsified evidence of income by a minority of those using it. Numerous cases have been going on for the past few years challenging whether some migrants on this scheme were altering their income to avoid paying the correct levels of tax.

Our system for bringing in skilled workers with job offers, Tier 2 (General), is often criticised for being inflexible and onerous. Politicians also often forget to mention that employers can only offer jobs to non-EU nationals when they have advertised a job and been unable to locate a suitable employee from the domestic labour market or if that person has skills on a list of ‘shortage occupations’.

Our routes for bringing in investors and entrepreneurs have been replaced with a scheme so awful, barely anybody wants to use it.

We have no system whatsoever for bringing in unskilled workers. Seasonal work, such as agriculture, has always benefitted from EU free movement. It was no issue for EU workers to come to the UK for a few months, do they work they wanted to do and then return home.

The (as always, excellent) Free Movement blog covers these issues in-depth in their article ‘Decline and fall of the Points-Based System’.

If we start from the premise that our routes for economic migration to the UK are fundamentally broken, then what do we want to replace them with? The Migration Advisory Committee are due to report later this month on what they propose our post-EU landscape should look like.

The Government has been reasonably tight-lipped on what it would like. The last clear paper on their intentions was in December 2018 and it is fair to say that a lot of things have changed since then. Some of their main policies for economic migration included:

• Migrants from low-risk countries being able to apply for work visas from inside the UK, as visitors. At present this usually has to be done as entry clearance from overseas.
• Removing our current monthly cap on skilled migrants entering the UK and removing some of the restrictions loathed by employers, such as the need for resident labour market testing before offering a position.
• Lowering the skill levels needed for overseas workers from ‘degree’ level to ‘A-level’.
• There is no solution yet for low-skilled workers, but there is a proposal for 12 month visas as an intermediate measure. Anyone who obtains one would have to endure a 12-month ‘cooling off’ period after leaving the UK before applying for another one.

Some of these developments are welcome. It makes sense to reduce the restrictions on those employing foreign nationals when the flow of EU nationals to the UK is about to fundamentally change. The lack of a solid option for low-skilled workers remains a massive area of concern. This is particularly of note for social care and agriculture who have been dependent on these. It is not clear how attractive these short-term visas will be if they then mandate periods of absence from the UK.

At present, this all looks a little flimsy. A full and robust new system is required.

If you would like to speak to an expert regarding your immigration queries, we have a team of experienced advisers who are more than happy to help! To speak with a member of our team please call us, request a callback at your convenience, message us your enquiry or email enquiry@broudiejacksoncanter.co.uk.