Immigration curbs on foreign workers, including those from India, will cut the number of immigrants to Britain by just 14,000, it was announced on Wednesday.
The Home Office announced 800,000 jobs on its “shortage list” - posts for which employers will be allowed to recruit from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
The Home Office announced 800,000 jobs on its “shortage list” - posts for which employers will be allowed to recruit from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).The aim of the list is to restrict the number of foreign workers taking jobs here, especially as unemployment rises in the economic downturn.
However, the government watered down the initiative by announcing a longer list than the one proposed by its migration experts earlier this year.
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) estimates that the changes to the list mean a potential cut of just 14,000 from current levels.
Non-EEA workers entering Britain must conform to one of the five categories: highly skilled, skilled in a profession that has shortages, students, temporary workers, or low skilled. This last group has temporarily been suspended.
The new list, which comes into force on November 27, applies to the second category, and indicates that construction managers, geologists, civil and chemical engineers, and senior nurses get jobs in which there are a shortfall of British employees.
Social workers and skilled chefs will be reviewed by the Migration Advisory Committee, which will also re-examine evidence for demand in all teaching-related jobs by March next.
A month ago, Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said that Britain would adopt tougher restrictions on immigration as the global financial crisis lifted unemployment to the highest rate in nearly a decade.