The Government’s reforms to ensure the immigration system works in the national interest are now taking effect.
Since May 2010 Conservatives have been working hard to bring immigration under control. The Government are reforming all the different routes of entry into the UK and the numbers are coming down as a result, indeed the latest encouraging figures just published by the Office for National Statistics show that:
l Net immigration is down by almost a third since the general election – net immigration into the UK in the year ending June 2012 was 163,000, compared to 235,000 in June 2010 (the figures released just after the general election)
lVisa numbers show that this trend is set to continue - the number of visas issued last year also went down, indicating that the downward trend of net immigration is set to continue
lSponsored student visas for UK universities have increased by 3% - showing that whilst we are ending the widespread abuse of student visas, we are still ensuring that our world-class universities can compete for overseas students
The latest figures show that the Government is cutting out abuse and making our immigration system much more robust. Putting a stop to the uncontrolled immigration we saw under the last Labour government which allowed approximately three million people come year in just over a decade and creating an immigration system which truly works in our national interest.
Additionally the ensure those migrants legitimately here in the UK can integrate better into society we have strengthened the English language requirement and are enhancing the ‘Life in the UK’ test, which means new migrants must take, to put British history and culture at its heart.
There is much more to do but the start is promising.