Why May is so hostile with immigrants

With no control over EU migration, May made the restrictions on non-EU citizens ever more onerous and punitive. The minimum earnings threshold for non-EU skilled workers soared to £35,000 and a ‘deport first, appeal later’ policy was introduced. A cheating scam at a single English language college led the Home Office wrongly to deport all 48,000 of the overseas students who had taken the English tests. In terms of family reunion, according to Migrant Integration Policy Index, the UK has the ‘least family-friendly immigration policy in the developed world’ – and yet May’s 2017 manifesto promised a further tightening on spousal visas. It is a measure of the meanness of the UK’s immigration policies under May’s watch that what effectively amounts to little more than an assurance that EU citizens won’t be deported can be considered ‘generous’.

Read more...