EU citizens show their post-Brexit fears
Government wants to introduce an Australian-style points-based system for immigration
Over the past 30 days Google’s search data have recorded a noticeable spike in people in the UK looking online for information related to immigration and citizenship after Brexit.
This is hardly an infallible guide — the top search topic was “Bong”, a reference, one assumes, to the heated debate this month over Big Ben and whether it can be brought back into action to mark Brexit day. Nevertheless, the number of queries on “freedom of movement”, “passport” and “visa” demonstrate a level of anxiety over what happens to EU citizens living in Britain after it leaves at 11pm (GMT) on Friday.
As this excellent explainer by the Financial Times’ Jim Brunsden and Sam Fleming points out, nothing changes very much in the short term because of the UK’s post-Brexit transition period — a twilight zone that maintains current trading, immigration and security arrangements until December 31 2020, the deadline for the two sides to agree a new trade deal.
What happens after that date will depend on the fraught negotiations over the next 11 months. But on the question of migration, a new report may offer some answers as to where the government is heading.
On Tuesday a committee given the task of advising Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government on the post-Brexit immigration system published a report on what that might look like after January 2021.
The government wants to introduce an Australian-style points-based system that seeks to ensure only high-skilled workers come to the UK from the EU and other parts of the world after Brexit.
Ministers had also previously set a minimum £30,000 annual salary requirement for workers seeking to come to the UK with a job offer.
In a move aimed at addressing concerns that the threshold was too high and could shut out skilled National Health Service workers, care workers and teachers needed by the UK economy, the Migration Advisory Committee’s report recommends the salary requirement should be lowered to £25,600.
But in keeping a threshold in place, the MAC is balancing the need for Mr Johnson’s government to meet voters’ concerns — especially in those so-called left-behind areas of the North and Midlands which voted for the Tories in last month’s election — that cheaper foreign workers are preventing British people from securing jobs.
The MAC was also asked by home secretary Priti Patel to advise on the pros and cons of the UK introducing its own points-based system that could come into force once freedom of movement for EU citizens stops at the end of this year.
Professor Alan Manning, chair of the MAC, said net migration would be cut under the new system but the UK economy would see a hit in terms of economic growth — already a concern with the shape of the UK’s future relationship with its biggest trading partner already in doubt.
“No perfect system exists and there are unavoidable, difficult trade-offs,” Prof Manning said. It is not clear yet whether the government will accept the committee’s recommendations.
For Mr Johnson, immigration remains core to his vision of Brexit — a key part of the Leave campaign’s 2016 mantra to take back control.
But judging by recent polling data from Ipsos Mori, immigration is no longer the hot button topic it was three and a half years ago.
According to Ipsos Mori, immigration peaked as one of the most important issues facing Britain towards the end of 2015 — a few months before the June 2016 vote to leave the EU. At that time slightly less than 60 per cent said it was one of their key concerns.
By the end of last year it had fallen to slightly more than 10 per cent, below other “more important” issues such as the NHS, the economy and the EU/Europe.