Labour’s new policy stance on immigration has inevitably led to allegations of racism by its critics, but also from many of its own supporters. It’s difficult to refute these claims or deny it’s a capitulation to Reform. Though Labour tread carefully on this issue, it’s also the case that post-Brexit, large numbers of the (legal) migrants originate from countries like Nigeria and India. In other words, unlike their eastern European predecessors they are non-white.
Migrants come here to fill vacancies
If overseas students are excluded, the vast majority of migrants come here to work rather than to seek asylum and/or live off benefits. But this week’s White Paper exposes a complete absence of any alternative labour market strategy from the government.
The expansion of work visa routes in February 2022 to include the social care workforce, was a response to rising vacancy levels. It triggered a sharp increase in the number of overseas workers, (from 37,000 in 2022 to 108,000 between 2022 and 2023, representing over 1 in 10 of total visa approvals, more if family members and dependents are included). But now, despite the difficult and arduous nature of this type of employment, the White Paper reclassifies care workers as ‘low-skilled’, because they aren’t graduates. More serious, it specifies that no new visas will be issued.
This White Paper proposals should be examined in congruence with the previous Get Britain Working. This makes ridiculous assumptions about and hints at threats against those ‘economically inactive’ – claiming they are preventing economic growth, (but also responsible for high immigration). In particular Labour, like its Tory predecessors has been upping the ante against economically inactive young people. https://education-economy-society.com/2025/03/10/reeves-ups-the-ante-on-the-doing-nothing-neets/ But can anybody realistically imagine an army of NEETs being successfully re directed to employment duties in social care!
Rather astonishingly and as a justification for its proposals, the White Paper argues that high rates of ‘lower skilled’ immigration have distorted the labour market and not provided the necessary increases in GDP. But social care provider bodies have been quick to warn of the potential collapse of the sector if the proposals are implemented, while the CBI expressed concerns about job loss and economic performance across other sectors. In short, the miserable performance of the UK economy would be considerably worse without the availability of labour from overseas.
But, the reliance on overseas workers has encouraged recent governments to avoid seriously addressing the need to train and properly renumerate domestic labour, particularly for those young people not following the university route. In sectors like social care, apprenticeship provision has generally been low grade, while in construction, barely existing at all. Pay and working conditions are some of the worst.
An alternative approach towards the labour market would want to address these issues, but it would also want to avoid creaming off and in many cases, openly exploiting workers playing an important role in health, welfare and care provision in African countries like Nigeria and Zambia for example. A comprehensive alternative economic strategy could exist alongside relatively liberal immigration policies.
Learning then not earning?
But if thousands of migrants come here to fill vacancies, even more come here to study. Between the end of 2014 and 2022, 300,000 more student visas had been issued to students with over 125 000 to their dependents. Between 2020 and 2022 there was also a 150% increase in the number starting Masters courses
Issues regarding overseas students are complex and as a group, they should be assessed separately to migrants filling work roles – crude net migration figures don’t do this. In 2022/23, international students contributed over £12 billion in tuition fees. Without these, many of the less prestigious universities would likely be unable to survive and so they are invariably relying on recruitment agencies that charge thousands of pounds in commission to draw in these students, often, unfortunately, under false pretense, making promises about applicants’ future prospects that universities cannot deliver.
A main concern of the White Paper and a justification for tighter controls, is the number of international students who, after completing courses are able to extend their visas and then enter lower level rather than graduate jobs (it estimates around 70% are doing this). But huge numbers of home graduates also find themselves ‘overqualified and under employed’. If the White Paper’s arguments that many overseas students primary aim is just to stay in the country are spurious, its accusations that increasing numbers use the extended visa opportunity to claim asylum ‘when nothing has changed in their countries’ are simply scandalous.
Education, Economy and Society 