Net migration down nearly 100,000 over the year

kabayiri

ruggedtoast wrote: »

...
Dependent visas for highly skilled migrants: Great, lets pi££ them off too, maybe when the UKIP idiots get their way we literally won't be able to pay people to come here

Nah, they will obviously choose France over us, preferring to pay stupid rates of income tax if they are successful.

The could perhaps choose other European countries like Spain or Portugal or Greece, if they really like instability.

UK is still an attractive place to come, all said and done.

CLAPTON

So basically the UK population has reached yet another all time high.

Not something I personally celebrate.

gadgetmind

People might find this useful.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/shortcuts/2013/may/22/how-to-spot-swivel-eyed-loon

robmatic

CLAPTON wrote: »

So basically the UK population has reached yet another all time high.

Not something I personally celebrate.

We've been achieving this feat quite regularly for several millenia... I guess the novelty wears off eventually.

chewmylegoff

Generali wrote: »

This is terrible news. AIUI education is a big earner for the UK

Partly it reflects weakness in other economies but if you keep telling your customers they aren't welcome then perhaps they'll take the hint.

Education is Australia's second biggest export earner after primary products. We'll happily take your customers.

Well it is potentially terrible news, depending on who the students actually are.

My understanding is that there are lots of different student visa types e.g. For university study, to attend a secondary school, to attend a language course.

University and school fees are a good money spinner and a way of subsidising education for British residents. People pretending to be studying English at a phoney language school and living in a restaurant being paid £2 an hour is not a great thing. I do seem to remember seeing other stats which suggested that the language school visas (which frankly appear to me to serve no real purpose other than to provide a means of entry to unskilled workers who cannot speak english and who intend to work full time illegally) have reduced dramatically and whilst other types have also reduced the main reason for the fall is a crack down on this sort of visa.

If that is correct, and it may well be totally incorrect, then I think it is a good thing.

robmatic

kabayiri wrote: »

Nah, they will obviously choose France over us, preferring to pay stupid rates of income tax if they are successful.

The could perhaps choose other European countries like Spain or Portugal or Greece, if they really like instability.

UK is still an attractive place to come, all said and done.

Do we only want highly skilled immigrants who are single?

Graham_Devon

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Well it is potentially terrible news, depending on who the students actually are.

My understanding is that there are lots of different student visa types e.g. For university study, to attend a secondary school, to attend a language course.

University and school fees are a good money spinner and a way of subsidising education for British residents. People pretending to be studying English at a phoney language school and living in a restaurant being paid £2 an hour is not a great thing. I do seem to remember seeing other stats which suggested that the language school visas (which frankly appear to me to serve no real purpose other than to provide a means of entry to unskilled workers who cannot speak english and who intend to work full time illegally) have reduced dramatically and whilst other types have also reduced the main reason for the fall is a crack down on this sort of visa.

If that is correct, and it may well be totally incorrect, then I think it is a good thing.

There was a statistic out the other day, I'm pretty sure it was on question time, suggesting what you suggest and suggesting that around 30% of student visas are used to gain entry, not study.

I don't think anyone would suggest this doesn't happen, afterall, people are desperate to get here.

It's just difficult to discuss this on here at the moment as everything appears to lead back to "racist!".

Graham_Devon

Ahhh, I got it......it was from Yvette Cooper of all people!

She claims up to 150,000 are currently possibly abusing student visas.

She also claims there has been a large rise in these sorts of student visas.

She claimed there were 150,000 reports about people possibly abusing student visas, which had not been checked by the UK Border Agency.
"Legitimate university students are included in the target even though they bring billions into Britain - and those are being squeezed. Yet student visitor visas aren't included - and growing abuse in that category is being ignored. Stronger checks are needed on shorter-term student visitor visas."

CLAPTON

robmatic wrote: »

We've been achieving this feat quite regularly for several millenia... I guess the novelty wears off eventually.

I guess that as an observation is could be said to be true although one might say 'they' rather than 'we'.

The population of the world has been growing over an even longer period and I don't welcome that either.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Graham_Devon wrote: »

There was a statistic out the other day, I'm pretty sure it was on question time, suggesting what you suggest and suggesting that around 30% of student visas are used to gain entry, not study..

Sounds a lot like a UKIP "statistic"*.


















*an outright lie in other words