Immigration: No visas for ‘Low-skilled’ migrant workers after Brexit

Low-skilled workers would not get visas under post-Brexit immigration plans unveiled by the government.

The UK’s immigration system has “for too long” focused on “low skilled workers” coming to the country, the Home Secretary said, as the Government announced plans to overhaul the rules after Brexit.

Priti Patel said the new points-based immigration system will focus on the “bright and best” coming to the UK.

The changes are designed to cut the number of low-skilled migrants entering Britain from the beginning of next year, after Brexit, but aim to make it easier for higher-skilled workers to get UK visas.

A policy statement outlined the new system after freedom of movement ends and said the economy needs to move away from a reliance on “cheap labour from Europe.”

It is urging employers to “move away” from relying on “cheap labour” from Europe and invest in retaining staff and developing automation technology.

The Home Office said EU and non-EU citizens coming to the UK would be treated equally after UK-EU free movement ends on 31 December.

Labour said a “hostile environment” would make it hard to attract workers.

But Home Secretary Priti Patel told BBC Breakfast the government wanted to “encourage people with the right talent” and “reduce the levels of people coming to the UK with low skills”.

Disposable Workers: Today’s Reserve Army of Labor

“But if a surplus labouring population is a necessary product of accumulation or of the development of wealth on a capitalist basis, this surplus-population becomes, conversely, the lever of capitalistic accumulation, nay, a condition of existence of the capitalist mode of production. It forms a disposable industrial reserve army, that belongs to capital quite as absolutely as if the latter had bred it at its own cost.” – —Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1

These are difficult times for workers. In the wealthy countries of capitalism’s center, labor is struggling to maintain existing wages and benefits against a combined assault by corporations and governments, while conditions of workers in the periphery are even more difficult. The widespread acceptance and adoption of capital’s agenda—”free trade,” “free markets,” greater “flexibility” regarding labor, and reduced social welfare assistance—has led to one group of real winners.

Transnational corporations (and their owners and top managers) now have more freedom to produce where labor and other costs are cheap, have their patents protected, and move capital in and out of countries at will. Many workers, unfortunately, are finding that their situation has become more tenuous.

It’s the working class, the poorer less skilled that are hit hardest.

The ONS said that the proportion of low-paid employees – those on less than two-thirds of median hourly earnings – stood at 16.2%, the lowest since the survey series began in 1997

London had the smallest percentage of low-paid employees, while Northern Ireland, the east Midlands and the north-east had the highest.

The highest-paid full-time jobs were paid almost five times as much an hour as the lowest paid

The Labour Party need to rethink it’s own policy towards immigration Insufficient paid work affects almost half a billion people. But more so first world economy’s need to rethink the relationship with third world countries. Instead of looking in an imperialist manner with the view of resource and human exploitation they should be looking at investment through education, health and skill training.

Strong economic growth in developing countries became an engine for the global economy after the 2008-09 financial crisis, accounting for roughly 50 percent of all global growth. In addition, fully half of the United States’ exports now go to emerging markets and developing economies.

More than 1 billion people still live in deep poverty, a state of affairs that is morally unacceptable given the resources and technology we have available today. At the same time, rising inequality and social exclusion seems to accompany rising prosperity in many countries.

Global economic development can be good for your bottom line. The focus on helping more than a billion poor people lift themselves out of extreme poverty and on boosting the incomes of the poorest 40 percent in developing countries. To do that, we need to find economic growth strategies that help all segments of society in emerging markets — reaching even fragile states striving to put years of conflict behind them and to create good jobs for their people.

A new United Nations report shows more than 470 million people are unemployed or underemployed globally. The report said a lack of access to decent jobs is contributing to social unrest — and warns that worse is to come.

A lack of decent work combined with rising unemployment and persisting inequality is making it increasingly difficult for people to build better lives through their work, according to the latest edition of the ILO’s global report on employment and social trends.

The global unemployment rate remained relatively stable during the 2010s, according to the report. But the global unemployment rate is expected to rise by 2.5 million in 2020, from 188 million to 190.5 million people.

In work poverty 630 million people on less than £2.40 per day. The ILO report highlighted that more than 60% of the global workforce currently work in the informal economy, often toiling for substandard wages and lacking basic social protections.

And in 2019, more than 630 million people – a fifth of the global working population – lived in so-called working poverty, meaning they made less than £2.40 per day in purchasing power.

Labour politicians want to claim that the party supports migrants. Yet they also claim that bosses “exploit” migrants to lower wages—and that there must be “stricter regulations”.

It’s said its not true that migration lowers average wages. Studies—such as the most recent report from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory—have repeatedly shown that migration “has small impacts on average wages”. But Negative impact on lower wages.

The MAC found there was some evidence that immigration depressed the wages of lower-skilled workers while inflating those of higher-skilled workers, but added that the impact was generally small.

When it talks about a small impact, it looked at the period from 1993 to 2017, over which time average earnings for the lowest-paid rose by 55%. Using economic modelling, they estimated that – if there hadn’t been European migration into the UK – that rise would have been around 5% higher.

It added that more research was needed to find out if there had been any impact on self-employed workers.

The MAC concluded that other factors had a greater impact on wages, with all workers having done badly since the financial crisis. Real wages are still struggling to rise above where they were in 2008, but lower-skilled workers have done marginally better due to the minimum wage rising faster than average earnings.

on the surface without adding the actual average wage in figures most people would just acknowledge these figures of 5% and move on however when you take into account that the average wage is £37,428 per year, you then have to question that impact.

Immigration has small impact on average wages but the effects are not evenly distributed: low-waged workers are more likely to lose while medium and high-paid workers are more likely to gain

Empirical research on the labour market effects of immigration in the UK suggests that immigration has relatively small effects on average wages, with negative effects on low-paid workers and positive effects on high-paid workers.

The poorer less skilled are hit hardest. The average, or mean, earnings for a full-time worker are £37,428 per year. This is higher than the median because a relatively small number of very high earners skew the figures. These numbers are taken from a survey of 180,000 people for the Office for National Statistics.

Finally, research suggests that any adverse wage effects of immigration are likely to be greatest for resident workers who are themselves migrants. This is because the skills of new migrants are likely to be closer substitutes for the skills of migrants already employed in the UK than for those of UK-born workers. Manacorda, Manning and Wadsworth (2012) analyse data from 1975-2005 and conclude that the main impact of increased immigration is on the wages of migrants already in the UK. LINK

The UK LeFT will need to reassess its own views on migration and Open borders as we see Freedom of movement coming to an end. 

No one can accuse Bernie Sanders of being right-winged here is what he had to say on open borders and the race to the bottom for low paid workers.

Towards a National Education Service

When we invest in people to develop their skills and capabilities, we all benefit from a stronger economy and society.

At a time when working lives and the skills our economy needs are changing rapidly, governments have the responsibility to make lifelong learning a reality by giving everyone the opportunity to access education throughout their lives.

Skills

At a time when technology is changing demand for different kinds of skills, and evolving patterns of work mean that people are more likely to pursue several careers during their working lives, it is crucial that our education system enables people to upskill and retrain over their lifetimes. As part of our dynamic industrial strategy, lifelong training would deliver productivity and growth to the whole economy while transforming the lives of individuals and communities.

Further and Adult Education

Despite claiming to be committed to delivering high-quality training, the Conservatives have ruthlessly cut funding for FE colleges – our main provider of adult and vocational education – and reduced entitlements for adult learners. This has led to diminishing numbers of courses and students and plunged the sector into crisis.

To provide a healthy educated work force, all political party’s need a rethink on how they will provide the tools needed to sustain a growing economy, how they can best provide health wealth education and yes happiness to the population without using an exploited workforce to prop up the elite.

• What are the new immigration rules?

The new points based system will require people to gain 70 points if they want to live and work in the UK.

Employers have until January 1st 2021 to meet the requirements and ensure the staff they employ have a right to work in the UK.

Points are awarded for key requirements, being able to speak English would result in 10 points, having a job offer from an “approved sponsor” is 20 points and those wanting to work in the UK must meet a minimum salary threshold.

EU and non-EU citizens will be treated equally with criminal background checks carried out on everyone coming to the UK – affecting applications of anyone who has been given a prison sentence of 12 months or more.

“Top priority” will be given to those with “the highest skills and the greatest talents”, like scientists, engineers and academics – who may not need a job offer to be allowed in.

Other points will be awarded for certain qualifications and if there is a shortage in a particular occupation.