2023-05-24 13:41:06
The UK government on Tuesday announced plans to limit family reunification for foreign students living in the country. With this new measure, London hopes to reduce immigration, which reached record highs last year.
The United Kingdom will abolish the right for certain foreign students to bring family members into the country, Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced on Tuesday (23 May).
This measure mainly targets postgraduate students (equivalent to a doctorate in France), with the exception of those following research programs. It will enter into force in January 2024.
The current rules allow postgraduate students on courses lasting at least nine months to bring their spouse and children to the UK.
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With this new announcement, the British government hopes to reduce immigration to the country, which reached record levels between June 2021 and June 2022 with the arrival of half a million people, according to official statistics published in November.
While prestigious British universities attract many foreigners, often at high prices, the new restrictions on student visas “will significantly reduce net migration by limiting the possibility for international students to bring in family members”, said the government said in a statement.
“Unprecedented increase” in family reunification beneficiaries
According to Suella Braveman, the UK has seen an “unprecedented increase in the number of dependents of students arriving in the country on visas”. “We must limit this route”, and act against the “unscrupulous agents” who use student visas as a migration route, say the authorities.
In 2022, around 136,000 visas were issued to dependents of foreign students, up from 16,000 in 2019, according to government figures.
In addition, foreign students will no longer be able to switch from a student visa to a work visa before completing their studies.
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The Minister of the Interior judged that the new measures represented a “fair balance” and would allow “in the medium term” to bring the migratory balance back to pre-Covid levels.
The issue of immigration control dominated debates during the Brexit campaign that resulted in the UK leaving the European Union. But the Conservative government has since failed to bring down legal and illegal immigration figures, despite promising to regain border control.
In 2022, more than 45,000 migrants, a record, crossed the English Channel illegally to reach the United Kingdom.
At the same time, the United Kingdom has, since Brexit, faced a shortage of labor in several sectors, including agriculture and health, creating regular tensions within the government over the control of the immigration.
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