The Home Secretary has said migration “must be properly controlled” with ministers due to lay out sweeping reforms to the immigration system.
The skilled visa threshold will be increased to degree-level and employers will be told they must train workers in the UK, under plans to be presented to Parliament on Monday.
Yvette Cooper has blamed a push for overseas recruitment for high net migration figures in recent years. The Immigration White Paper is being presented as part of Government efforts to reduce net migration into the UK, with the figure reaching 728,000 in 2024. Net migration is the difference between the number of people moving to a country and those emigrating.
According to the Home Office, there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages, businesses will be supported to take on more British workers and employers will be told to develop plans to train staff in the UK.
In an attempt to reduce the number of low-skilled workers coming to Britain, the skilled visa threshold will be increased to graduate-level.
Officials will also set up a labour market evidence group to examine which sectors are reliant on overseas workers.
Ms Cooper said: “We’ve seen net migration quadruple in the space of just four years, driven especially by overseas recruitment.
“We inherited a failed immigration system where the previous government replaced free movement with a free market experiment.
“Employers were given much greater freedom to recruit from abroad while action on training fell.
“Overseas recruitment soared at the same time as big increases in the number of people not working or in education here in the UK.”
Official figures show net migration has soared since the UK left the EU in January 2020, reaching a record high of 903,000 in the year to June 2023 before falling back slightly to 728,000 in the following year if the economic worsens.
Earlier this week, Downing Street said ministers are “focused on bringing down the last government’s record high levels of migration and tackling the causes behind it”.
Reports in the Times had suggested that among the measures under consideration were plans for migrants to need a higher standard of English to work in the UK.
While the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said he would not “speculate”, he said “proficiency and language and being able to communicate are of course essential parts of integration”.
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