David Cameron unveiled new
restrictions on non-EU migration coming to the UK last week. It includes restricting
work visas to skill shortages and specialists’ jobs, higher visa fees and
increased salary threshold for the visa to be granted.
As a tier 1 visa holder I don’t
believe these measures address the real problem. The current system restricts
civil liberties; under the visa mandate professional, social and family life of
migrants are regulated in a utilitarian manner. The system determines what the
skilled migrant should be doing, when and how the business should be managed;
the Home Office and the Police monitor professional and personal life
respectively.
The system envisions only an
economic role for skilled migrants, which is incidentally also viewed as
criteria for civic participation and a desirable virtue for natives. but
despite meeting the definition of community invested citizenry, skilled
migrants are not considered part of the society as such limiting their civic
rights including political and economic rights.
Changing the immigration system
for new migrants does not address the current situation. People who are
invested in the UK need to be integrated into the society. The current system
imposes an identity on migrants defining them in terms other than members of
the community. The immigration system is creating and feeding stereotypes; in
the long term such policies serve xenophobia and racism.
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