UK Prime Minister: Don’t Cap Immigration

Great Britain’s Prime Minister does not feel that immigration should be capped. However, his advocacy for more immigrants comes at a price–strong employer sanctions and a point system. Elizabeth Stewart reports in the Guardian:

Gordon Brown has rejected calls for a cap on non-EU immigration, saying it could harm the British economy.

Speaking at his monthly press conference at Downing Street, the prime minister claimed a cap on immigration would deprive Britain of highly skilled workers, and said the government’s new points-based system was a better solution to control unskilled non-EU migrants.

Referring to today’s House of Lords economic committee report, which called for stronger measures to curb immigration, he said that government policy would balance the need to bridge the skills gap in the British economy, while being “sensible regarding the pressures on the economy”.

The prime minster said that Britain’s new points-based system, which would in effect ban immigration from unskilled non-EU immigrants, coupled with the introduction of a new “citizens fund” to which immigrants would be compelled to contribute to pay for public services, as well as tougher sanctions on employers who hired illegal immigrants, would go a long way to allaying the concerns raised by the Lords committee.

Brown’s comments corresponded with those of Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, who has rejected demands for a cap on immigration. Click here for the story.

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