Migrant Settlement

Immigration Minister, Damian Greene, gave a speech at the Policy Exchange think tank yesterday outlining plans for reform to migrant settlement.  Mr Greene stated an intention to deny settlement to migrant workers who are earning less than £31,000 a year after five years in the UK.  He also stated there would be a review of the annual limit on skilled economic Tier 2 migrants and spoke about the changes to migration already being considered.  He went on to mention ultimately replacing the current Points-Based System with a contribution-based system so that migrants must, presumably, economically and socially contribute to Britain in order to gain rights of residence but gave no details on how such a system would work.

It should be noted this was a speech to a think tank and was not an announcement in Parliament.  Any such changes would need to go through the parliamentary process and may not ever make it into law.  However, this is a clear indication of sweeping changes to come to managed migration.