UK minister hints immigration policy change: What it means for Indians, students

UK’s Liz Truss government hopes to abide by the 2019 election pledge of reducing net migrants in the country, new interior minister Indian-origin Suella Braverman said in an interview with The Sun on Sunday.

Suella Braverman stated that Britain has a high number of low-skilled migrants and a large number of international students adding that the students more often brought dependents with them to UK thereby affecting the country’s growth.

“What we’ve got is too many low skilled workers coming into this country. We’ve also got a very high number of students coming into this country and we’ve got a really high number of dependents,” the interior minister said.

“Those people are coming here, they’re not necessarily working or they’re working in low-skilled jobs, and they’re not contributing to growing our economy,” Suella Braverman added asserting that the UK government will reduce migration and review immigration policy.

According to UK’s office for national statistics, the net migration to UK was 239,000 in the year ending June 2021. As European Union workers in UK reduce post-Brexit, there has been a rise in the number of non-EU workers especially from India. Therefore, reduction in the net migration in UK could impact Indian immigrants and students wishing to study in Britain.

Earlier this week, Guardian reported that Liz Truss could change immigration rules to manage the severe labour shortage in the country- not in tandem with Suella Braverman’s comments.