In an anticipated pre-election speech on immigration, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has outlined a number of tough new proposals to restrict welfare benefits for EU migrants, which, if introduced, could have consequences for incoming international students.
The proposed changes, which include forcing EU jobseekers to leave the UK if they fail to find employment within six months, would save UK taxpayers half a billion pounds over the next five years, he claimed.
“We will revoke licences from colleges and businesses which fail to do enough to prevent large numbers of migrants they sponsor from overstaying their visas”
However, he admitted that his plan would require changes to EU treaties including those on freedom of movement, saying that if he is voted in in next year’s general election he would negotiate to reform the EU.
He urged leaders to support what he said were “reasonable” proposals and acknowledged that the bulk of immigrants into the UK now are from within the EU.
“As we have reduced the numbers coming to the UK from outside the EU, the numbers from inside the EU have risen,” he said.
“In other words, our squeeze in one area has been offset by a bulge in another.”
Cameron also outlined steps the government has taken to reduce student visa fraud and urged that if voted in again, he would put further responsibility onto the shoulders of education providers.
“We clamped down on bogus students and stopped nearly 800 fake colleges bringing people in,” he said, later adding: “I have talked with the immigration officers who used to have no choice but to admit what they felt sure were fake students, claiming to come here to study without being able to speak a word of English.”
“But if I am Prime Minister after the election, we will go further,” he pledged. “We will revoke licences from colleges and businesses which fail to do enough to prevent large numbers of migrants they sponsor from overstaying their visas.”
Further proposals include excluding future EU immigrants from in-work tax credits and social housing for four years, and preventing immigrants from receiving child benefit for children living outside the UK.
