LONDON, June 26, (Agencies): Britain will begin capping the number of non-European Union migrants coming into the country to live and work for the first time next month, a Home Office source said Saturday.
Just 24,100 workers will be allowed in between next month and April 2011 — a five percent cut on the number who arrived in the same period last year.
The aim is to prevent a sudden influx in arrivals before a permanent annual limit, a key election pledge of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party, is introduced next year.
“It’s not about cutting, it’s about preventing a rush,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Home Secretary Theresa May will announce the measure on Monday along with a consultation on the annual limit, which was part of the coalition deal agreed between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats after May elections.
There will be no restrictions on the number of migrants allowed to come in from an overseas company to a branch in Britain under the temporary cap, while other specific groups — such as elite sports people — will be exempt.
In 2008, net migration to Britain was 163,000. This was down from 233,000 in 2007 but the Conservatives vowed in their manifesto to cut this to levels seen in the 1990s when it was “tens of thousands a year, not hundreds of thousands”.
This figure includes EU migrants, over whom the government has no control because of the bloc’s open borders.
The announcement is the first step in the government’s pledge to cut the number of foreign workers coming to Britain.
Prime Minister David Cameron took a tough line of immigration in the run-up to last month’s election, promising to bring annual net migration down from “hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands”. It currently stands at about 170,000 a year.
Cameron’s tough line on immigration proved popular with voters, but has drawn criticism from business groups who claim a rigid cap could harm the recovery by making it harder for firms to hire the talent they need.
The move could also test the cohesion of Britain’s seven week-old coalition government.
The Liberal Democrats, the junior partner, attacked Cameron’s proposals to cap immigration in the run up to last month’s election, but reluctantly agreed to back the policy as part of the coalition deal.