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| Labour immigration policy will focus on short-term student visitor visas | Labour immigration policy will focus on short-term student visitor visas |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Stronger checks on migrants who abuse short-term student visitor visas will replace the coalition's targeting of legitimate higher education overseas students in Labour's new approach to immigration, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper will say in a speech. | Stronger checks on migrants who abuse short-term student visitor visas will replace the coalition's targeting of legitimate higher education overseas students in Labour's new approach to immigration, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper will say in a speech. |
| Cooper will also make an announcement on reforming access for new migrants to welfare benefits. | Cooper will also make an announcement on reforming access for new migrants to welfare benefits. |
| She will admit that Labour got some things wrong on immigration when it was in government, conceding that it should have introduced the Australian-style points based system to curb low-skilled migrants from outside Europe more quickly and imposed transitional controls on eastern Europeans, including Poles. | She will admit that Labour got some things wrong on immigration when it was in government, conceding that it should have introduced the Australian-style points based system to curb low-skilled migrants from outside Europe more quickly and imposed transitional controls on eastern Europeans, including Poles. |
| Labour believes action on short-term student visas would allow the fostering of more legitimate graduate students, especially from China and Brazil, to help boost the economy and the university sector. "But we won't enter an arms race of rhetoric on immigration – and we hope that the prime minister won't either. That's not honest, or good for Britain," Cooper will say in the speech, to be delivered on Thursday at the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank. | Labour believes action on short-term student visas would allow the fostering of more legitimate graduate students, especially from China and Brazil, to help boost the economy and the university sector. "But we won't enter an arms race of rhetoric on immigration – and we hope that the prime minister won't either. That's not honest, or good for Britain," Cooper will say in the speech, to be delivered on Thursday at the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank. |
| The speech details a series of practical measures including tougher enforcement of minimum wage legislation and action against employers who undercut domestic labour by cramming migrants into caravans or using gangmasters who employ illegal migrants. | The speech details a series of practical measures including tougher enforcement of minimum wage legislation and action against employers who undercut domestic labour by cramming migrants into caravans or using gangmasters who employ illegal migrants. |
| Cooper will stress the benefits that immigration has brought to Britain – including new ideas, new talents and the hard work that has built some of Britain's biggest companies, sustained the NHS, kept public transport moving and expanded the science base. | Cooper will stress the benefits that immigration has brought to Britain – including new ideas, new talents and the hard work that has built some of Britain's biggest companies, sustained the NHS, kept public transport moving and expanded the science base. |
| "Last summer the entire nation gathered behind Team GB. A third of the team had parents or grandparents who came from abroad to make Britain their home. And we celebrated the strong, diverse and outward looking culture that we showed off to the world," she will say. | "Last summer the entire nation gathered behind Team GB. A third of the team had parents or grandparents who came from abroad to make Britain their home. And we celebrated the strong, diverse and outward looking culture that we showed off to the world," she will say. |
| She will also say that immigration needs to be properly controlled and its impact properly managed to retain public support – and that the mistakes Labour made in office meant that immigration, especially low skilled immigration, was too high and that it is right to try to bring it down now. | She will also say that immigration needs to be properly controlled and its impact properly managed to retain public support – and that the mistakes Labour made in office meant that immigration, especially low skilled immigration, was too high and that it is right to try to bring it down now. |
| But the government's target to bring net migration down to below 100,000 a year has led to a 38,000 drop in international students coming to Britain – who in total bring in investment and jobs worth £8bn a year, she will say. | But the government's target to bring net migration down to below 100,000 a year has led to a 38,000 drop in international students coming to Britain – who in total bring in investment and jobs worth £8bn a year, she will say. |
| "Everything that is included in net migration is treated as the same while the government tries to bring it down. Everything excluded from the 'net migration' measure is being ignored – even if it causes serious problems," Cooper will say, citing the short-term student visitor visa route as a key example of a category where growing abuse is being ignored and yet is outside the net migration target. | "Everything that is included in net migration is treated as the same while the government tries to bring it down. Everything excluded from the 'net migration' measure is being ignored – even if it causes serious problems," Cooper will say, citing the short-term student visitor visa route as a key example of a category where growing abuse is being ignored and yet is outside the net migration target. |
| Cooper will describe this route, which allows students to come for periods of up to six months, as "the bogus college of the government's own making that is ripe for abuse," and will add: "We need stronger checks on short-term student visitor visas – but legitimate higher education students should not be targeted in government action to bring immigration down." | Cooper will describe this route, which allows students to come for periods of up to six months, as "the bogus college of the government's own making that is ripe for abuse," and will add: "We need stronger checks on short-term student visitor visas – but legitimate higher education students should not be targeted in government action to bring immigration down." |
| The student visitor visa involves no minimum level of course for the student and does not need to lead to a qualification: "There are no academic requirements for getting the visa. Applicants don't have to provide evidence of funds to support themselves nor proof of study at a college No one checks if they study. No one checks if they overstay. And these visas have gone up by 30,000 a year since the election … Yet because 'student visitors' aren't included in the net migration target, the Home Office doesn't appear to care." | The student visitor visa involves no minimum level of course for the student and does not need to lead to a qualification: "There are no academic requirements for getting the visa. Applicants don't have to provide evidence of funds to support themselves nor proof of study at a college No one checks if they study. No one checks if they overstay. And these visas have gone up by 30,000 a year since the election … Yet because 'student visitors' aren't included in the net migration target, the Home Office doesn't appear to care." |
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