UK limits number of foreign workers, including Pinoys

The United Kingdom has imposed limits on the number of non-European foreign workers, including Filipinos, who can enter its borders for employment starting April 2011, the British Embassy in Manila said Friday.

In a statement, the UK government said it is controlling the number of people entering Britain for employment by introducing an annual limit of 21,700 workers under the skilled and highly skilled categories – 20,700 of whom must be classified as skilled and the remaining 1,000 as highly skilled.

The Embassy said this annual limit will allow Britain to remain competitive in the international jobs market and ensure that migrant labor does not drastically reduce opportunities for British citizens already looking for work.

“The announcement has set out a clear, rational approach to which workers we will allow into the UK job market. We have set out an approach which will not only get immigration down to sustainable levels but at the same time, protects those businesses and institutions which are vital to our economy,” the Embassy statement read quoting UK Home Secretary Theresa May.

She added that the UK Home Office is likewise tightening the intra-company transfer route to be set outside the annual limit, as well as restricting Tier One—the ‘highly skilled’ tier—of the Points Based System (PBS) to all except entrepreneurs, investors and people of exceptional talent.

Businesses can bring into the UK their own employees through the intra-company transfer route, but the workers must be earning more than £40,000 annually to stay more than 12 months, and their stay will be restricted to five years, May explained.

The UK government’s decision to revise its policies for admission of Tier One category workers came after learning that approximately a third of those coming through this route were doing low-skilled jobs as soon as they entered the country.

Employers meanwhile have reiterated they will prioritize hiring Tier 2 or skilled workers to fill their specific vacancies.

Applicants for the Tier 2 category, or skilled workers, must be at graduate level and sponsored by an employer. They will be awarded points based on the need for their skills and salary.

They will, however, be competing with other applicants for a visa to enter the UK, and when the limit is reached, applicants with higher points will qualify for one of the certificates of sponsorship available each month.

“We will take action on all routes into the UK and these changes are crucial if we are to limit the numbers coming here to work, while still attracting the brightest and the best to the UK,” May said.

“We have worked closely with businesses while designing this system, and listened to their feedback, but we have also made clear that as the recovery continues, we need employers to look first to people who are out of work and who are already in this country,” she added.—With Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV