UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer doubled down on assertions to fix a “broken” immigration system while pushing for stricter policies to cut net migration. Soon after the Sunday decision started making rounds, the British leader said that the major immigration influx in the UK had fuelled risks of it becoming an “island of strangers.” On Monday, his government’s major shake-up determined that the number of migrants could be slashed by 100,000 every year as long as the new policies are effectively put in place.

In hopes of closing the book on a “squalid chapter,” he insisted on taking back control of the border. “Nations depend on rules, fair rules. Sometimes they are written down, often they are not, but either way, they give shape to our values, guide us towards our rights, of course, but also our responsibilities, the obligations we owe to each other,” he said at a Downing Street press conference on Monday. “In a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more important. Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”

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Official stats indicate that net migration, meaning the number of people moving to the UK minus those who leave, had soared to a staggering 728,000 in the 12 months to June 2024.

On the flip side of the discourse, left-wing Labour MP Nadia Whittome was not a fan of Starmer’s ‘Island of Strangers’ claim. Expressing her disappointment, she wrote on X: “The step-up in anti-migrant rhetoric from the government is shameful and dangerous. Migrants are our neighbours, friends and family. To suggest that Britain risks becoming “an island of strangers” because of immigration mimics the scaremongering of the far-right.”

UK immigration, visa policy changes unveiled

  • Focus shifts to training local British workers: As revealed in the government’s Immigration White Paper in Parliament on Monday, care workers will no longer be recruited from overseas. The British govt urges UK businesses to hit local workers or extend the visas of the care workers already present in the country to curb incoming migrants.

“Care companies should be recruiting from those workers. They can also extend existing visas. They could recruit as well from people who are on other visas, who are already here. But we do think it’s time to end that care worker recruitment from abroad,” Interior Minister Yvette Cooper told BBC

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  • Proof of English aptitude: AFP reported that stricter English language rules would be put in place. As a result, all adult dependents of visa holders will be expected to pass an A1-Level English test. In case, workers or their families plan on extending their visas, dependents will have to succeed at the advanced A2 test.
  • Right to settle, citizenship: Initially, foreign workers could apply for settlement in the UK after five years by default. However, the sweeping visa changes have increased that timeline to 10 years.
  • The foremost focus is on skilled worker visas only being issued for graduate-level jobs to ensure that foreign skilled workers coming to the UK have already earned a degree, as per the new changes.