By Yash Dubal
In the UK, the bombshell has dropped. After several weeks of turmoil, the ruling Conservative Party has introduced measures aimed at significantly reducing the number of overseas migrants coming to the UK to work. These include increasing the salary threshold migrants can earn before qualifying for a work visa by a third and barring migrant care workers from bringing their partners and children.
Several factors have caused this surge in numbers. Several of them are the result of one-off global events. 174,000 Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression have been granted visas as a result of the war, for example, as have around the same number of Hong Kong residents who have British Nationals Overseas status.
The main culprits for the rise in net migration, however, have been overseas students and workers, particularly in the health and care sectors. The reason so many have been able to get to the UK is the points-based immigration system that was introduced by the British administration after the nation left the EU, ironically in part to gain autonomy over its borders.
The paradox has been that the country is now in control of its borders and in doing so, has invited in hundreds of thousands of workers and students from outside Europe, a fact that many Conservative voters argue was not their intention when they swallowed the popular Brexit-campaigning slogan and voted to ‘take back control’.
Indians may well wonder what all the fuss is about. After all, Britain needs migrants. If there wasn’t the demand, there wouldn’t be so many visas issued. Indeed, the UK relies on a steady flow of foreign workers to help the economy grow and to underpin the National Health Service, which would collapse without them. But many of these workers are employed on lower wages. For
shortage occupation professions, such as health care workers and some construction roles, the wages paid to visa holding Indians are 20 percent less than average. The result, some argue, is that British firms would rather pay foreign workers low wages, which keeps wages low for everyone else.
Raising the salary threshold for overseas workers from £26,200 a year to £38,700 from next spring will reduce the number of visas granted to Indian skilled workers because it effectively prices many overseas workers out of the market for jobs that would traditionally attract lower wages. Employers are unlikely to pay a foreign chef £38,700 for example, unless they worked in a very top end restaurant.
Last year there were 253,000 Indian nationals who migrated to the UK and Indian nationals were on top in both the skilled worker and health and care visa categories in September 2023. Indians accounted for 43% in the student visa category, making them the largest group who were given the new Graduate visa route after completion of their studies. The skilled worker visa category saw 38,866 Indian applicants, and the number of Indian applicants for Health and Care visas increased by 76%.
Another measure announced this week is the scrapping of the shortage occupation list (SOL). This is a list of professions where shortages of personnel are particularly acute. An employer engaging an Indian worker for a role on the SOL is allowed to pay that worker 20% less than the average for the role. Some have argued that the SOL encourages employers to pay lower wages, although in my experience the wage savings are cancelled out by the fees and administrative burden associated with sponsoring a foreign worker. The SOL will now be reformed with a reduced number of professions on it.
Although care workers are on the SOL, they will be unaffected by the changes as shortages in the care sector in the UK remain acute. However, anyone applying for a care worker visa will no longer be able to bring their dependents with them, which effectively means that only single people or those willing to leave their dependents behind in India will apply.
For those who do qualify and get a visa, the good news is that their earnings will be boosted by a third.
Whatever happens, the impacts will be felt beyond British shores.
(The author is the Director & a Senior Immigration Associate at A Y & J Solicitors, London, United Kingdom and the views expressed are his own)