Government's Plan to Cap Emigration to be Probed

The government's plans to introduce a cap on the number of skilled emigrant works that can come to the UK from outside the European Union is under scrutiny. The chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, Professor David Metcalf, went on to give evidence to MPs that the government has its policy wrong and caps on skilled labor could threaten the UK's recovery.

The chairman of the Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz, said that the cap should pass the scrutiny of parliament before it is brought into force, because it risks placing restrictions on friendly countries like India. An immediate 5 percent reduction was imposed just earlier this year to prevent a rush of applications while the independent MAC consulted where the limit should be set for April of next year.

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, went on to raise concerns about the proposed caps while on a visit to Indian over the summer. He went on to admit that there is a debate about these plans. The Liberal Decorate Business Secretary said that he was pushing for a light touch regime. He said he wanted to encourage trade and inward investment.

Other business leaders are worried that the cap might have an impact on Indian companies, which are heavily invested in the UK. It will also have an impact on UK-based companies that rely on workers from the south Asia region. People from these areas normally provide services like IT, food and hospitality.

Damian Green, who is the emigration minister, admitted that an annual limit on the 50,000 workers that arrive from outside the European Union each year would not be enough to reduce net emigration levels. In fact, figures from last year were said to reach as high as 196,000 which means most of the emigrants coming in are from the European Union.