UK Student Immigration ‘Unsustainable’
Posted on 06. Sep, 2010 by Dahlia Lithwick in Headlines, World
UK Student Immigration ‘Unsustainable’ – Immigration Minister Damian Green said, the number of foreign students let into the United Kingdom is “unsustainable.’
In a speech, he will ask whether Britain is attracting the best students wherein only half of student visa has been issued for university courses. Green’s concerns come as Home Office research suggests one-fifth of students were still in the United Kingdom five years after being granted with visas. The Home Office traced non-EU migrants who came to the UK in 2004.
The largest group with about 185,000 people was students. 21 percent were still in the country after five years. According to Danny Shaw of BBC home affairs correspondent, along with an increasing number of new overseas students, it had led Green to make reform of the student immigration route a priority.
The ministers also propose to examine work visas because two-fifths of people in this group have remained in the United Kingdom after five years. He said there was a need to examine closely sub-degree courses and the reasons for students remaining in the country.
Last month, figures released by Office for National Statistics showed net migration to the UK grown by 33,000 to 196,000 in 2009.The number of visas issued to students increased by 35 percent to 362,015. The figures were proof the coalition government had inherited an immigration system ‘largely out of control’.