London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said that the government’s plans to curb legal migration will trigger a recruitment crisis in the British capital.
High levels of legal migration have particularly ruled the political landscape of Britain for over ten years and have been a significant factor in the 2016 vote for Brexit.
Last week, Britain announced plans to slash the number of migrants that were arriving via legal routes and raise the minimum salary they must earn in a skilled job by a third, amid pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to tackle record net migration figures.
Home Secretary (interior minister) James Cleverly said the new measures could reduce that number by 300,000.
Cleverly said that the government would raise the minimum salary threshold for foreign skilled workers to 38,700 pounds ($48,900), from its current level of 26,200 pounds, though health and social workers would be exempt.
Describing the policies as misguided, Khan said that the failure to train the domestic workforce will make it difficult for London businesses to function without the required staff that they would be requiring.
“One of the reasons that London is the greatest city in the world is the contribution of successive generations of immigrants working side by side with trained Brits. Migrants are absolutely integral to our economy and public services, whether running our care homes and our bars and restaurants or helping power our world-leading arts and creative sector,” the Guardian quoted Khan as saying.
“It is vital that more is done to train up British workers with the right skills. But the government needs to realise that these latest immigration policies will lead to a full-blown recruitment crisis. This will have severe consequences for public services and the economy, not just here in London but across the UK.”
‘New immigration salary’
Cleverly said the government would put an end to the current system that lets employers pay migrants only 80% of the going rate to do jobs where there is a significant worker shortage.
“We will stop immigration undercutting the salary of British workers,” Cleverly told lawmakers. “We will create a new immigration salary list with a reduced number of occupations.”
(With inputs from agencies)
