As UK Government released its Immigration White Paper, outlining new proposed measures to reduce net migration today, experts raised concerns about the proposed system’s impact on business, recruitment, and critical services, such as healthcare.
plans place significant restrictions on overseas recruiting, focusing on lower-skilled jobs and care workers. The announcement comes after earlier changes which saw the number work and study visas drop by 40% since the government came into power.
Recruitment of overseas care homes prohibited
Access to work visas is expected to be restricted under the reforms. The criteria for family visas are being tightened. Routes that could be viewed as “backdoors” to settlement will be closed, while enforcement will increase. These measures, according to government estimates, will reduce the number of lower-skilled immigrants entering the country by approximately 50,000 this year.
Some of the other measures include making migrants speak English at a higher level and extending the time before they are eligible to apply for a leave to stay indefinitely to ten years.
The care worker visa will be discontinued. For many years, the sector relied heavily upon overseas labour to fill any staffing gaps. Home Secretary Yvette cooper stated that a high level of migration, coupled with a lack domestic training, was “distorting the labour market” and damaging the economy.
She also added that the government would encourage businesses to invest in British employees through sector-specific workforce strategy.
The number of applications for UK visas for health and care workers has already decreased. There were 129,000 applications between April 2023 to March 2024. This figure dropped to 26,000 in the next 12 months as a result of a change in policy that prohibited care workers from bringing their dependents.
Experts in immigration and HR urge review of White Paper
Employers and HR professionals are concerned about the proposed changes. Neil Carberry of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation warned that reforms could target the wrong part on the labour market.
He said that “this major intervention on the labour market is going to make many employers afraid the government will go after the wrong target in its efforts to address concerns about immigration.” It is important to be open to skilled workers and businesses who invest in the country. We should also remember that recent increases in the number of people are not the result of private investment.
Carberry called on the new Labour Market Evidence Group to keep a flexible, responsive and proactive approach to immigration with regular inputs from business leaders.
He added: “Employers have made it clear that boosting the training in the UK is important, but also a controlled, responsive and affordable immigration system that maintains investment flowing into the UK .”
Sophie Barrett-Brown is a Senior Partner with Laura Devine Immigration. She also expressed concerns regarding the Immigration White Paper. She said that the new requirements, such as employer-led programmes of training, higher salary thresholds and narrower roles eligible for sponsorship could increase costs and complexity in hiring.
If these measures were implemented, it could have a disproportionate impact on certain sectors, regional business and SMEs. She told HR Review that it may have an unintended effect of making the UK less attractive as a place for business.
“The government should engage effectively with businesses and other stakeholder to ensure there is an appropriate impact assessment. This will help to balance objectives to reduce net migration and support the economy.”
