UK announces stricter visa measures to reduce migration, raises minimum salary
- UK raises minimum salary for skilled migrant worker visas as part of ‘radical action’ to cut immigrant numbers
- Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to reduce new arrivals, but net migration to Britain hit a high in 2022
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Britain announces stricter visa measures to reduce immigration, raises minimum salary to US$48,900
Britain announced plans to slash the number of migrants arriving by legal routes on Monday, raising the minimum salary they must earn in a skilled job by a third, amid pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to tackle record net migration figures.
High levels of legal migration have dominated Britain’s political landscape for more than a decade and were a key factor in the 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
Sunak has promised to gain more control after lawmakers in his Conservative Party criticised his record ahead of an election expected next year, with the opposition Labour Party far ahead in opinion polls.
But businesses and trade unions both attacked the measures as counterproductive and challenging for the private sector and state-run health service, both dogged by labour shortages.
Figures last month showed annual net migration to the United Kingdom hit a record of 745,000 in 2022 and has stayed at high levels since, with many migrants now coming from places like India, Nigeria and China instead of the EU.