It’s been a year since Arvind has shifted to UK for his work. As a newlywed couple, Swati yearns to be with him. They got married in January. After her initial stay at her in-laws place and completion of her B.Com, she was supposed to join Arvind. She was just counting the days. Her family was happy that their elder will be ‘settling abroad’. Swati was all set to fly ‘out’.
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Samay has settled in London for the past one year. He works in a reputed VLSI firm. He married Sarika in India, who is supposed to shift to London after applying for a transfer to London from her current Company. Sarika is excited about her new job responsibilities in London.
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Suddenly, few days back, alarming news about the new immigration policy blueprint, that has been put forth by UK, might pose as a big concern for Swati and Sarika. The new proposed immigration policy, which is likely to be put into action by next year, has serious implication for immigrants in the UK and their spouses, other than EU countries.
Wondering why it might be a problem for Swati and Sarika?
The new policy plans to impose a salary threshold for allowing immigrants to bring their wives and work there. As in, spouses can’t just come and settle, unless the person already earning in the UK has a certain salary figure. Earlier there were no restrictions and spouses could easily immigrate and settle there.
Swati can surely go there, but if Arvind’s salary is below the designated salary threshold, she has to come back within the tenure of tourist visa and again re-apply for the same.
Sarika can only take a transfer and earn in London, if Samay is already earning over the designated salary threshold.
The announcement came out on June 10, 2015 from Prime Minister James Cameron. A Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) will:
- Look into the new proposals of non-EEA immigration and measures to reduce them
- Levy on Tier-2 visa to motivate funding for UK apprenticeship, which is a rise in the minimum salary threshold
- Put a time limit on the period that a sector can claim to have a skills shortage
- Tighten the intra company transferee (ICT) route for immigration of spouses and also applying the immigration health surcharge for such transfers
These measures will cut down excessive immigration into the county and only allow influx of highly skilled experts and specialists along with their family. Earlier, it was like no limitation or level zero as a salary threshold to bring in a spouse, but now it will be set at a certain earning figure.
According to James Cameron, this will also help to cultivate the talent within the country and put them to their best worth. Businesses will not have an easy way to just recruit from overseas, rather give internal skills a chance over outside EU immigration.
The Immigration Taskforce will put the necessary measures in place and act to implement the new policy from next year. This will help create more job opportunities for their Nationals.
A recent news release also suggested that cutting UK immigration might also help to tackle housing crisis, but the exact implications have not yet been justified. However, UK is determined to bring down the alarming immigration figure of 318,000 by the next year.
How does it affect India?
Well, there is a huge India population base in the UK, who have migrated along with their families and employed in a variety of sectors, ranging over a wide spectrum of earnings. But, from now on, it is not going to be that simple for ‘everyone’ to just migrate first and then call on your family, either to stay or work there forever. Either you are a highly skilled and highly paid immigrant in the UK, else you can give up on your efforts to bring in and settle with your dependents there. Moreover, new work permits and visas will also go under the scanner and scrutinized for actual requirement and might get cancelled if not found ‘genuine’.
Coming from the economic standpoint, this might a necessary measure to control illegal immigration because the country has full right to decide how many mouths to feed and whom to provide the privileges. But, somewhere it is hard hit for immigrants working there with a family to support here. They would want their spouses to be with them and also work there to sustain the standards of living in the UK. Since, the Governement has decided to put a restriction on that, it will be more difficult for immigrants of lower job grades and other sectors like waiters, household services like cooks, plumbers etc. to survive. It is not just India, immigrants in the UK come from different parts of the world and not all of them belong to a highly skilled job grade.
Guess, either they will have to negotiate with the company, which requires them to go and work in the UK or upgrade their expertise to match up to the minimum salary threshold. Immigrants for other jobs need to give a second thought whether UK would be the best possible option for skills.
Check your finances and explore options before you decide to immigrate to the UK and settle with your spouse. Because, if you don’t they will!
