On
the eve of debates in both Houses of Parliament, Migration Watch UK has issued Briefing
Paper No 2.24 underlining the need to continue including students in the
calculation of net migration.
Key
points as follows:
Our major competitors do include them (as Universities UK now apparently
accept). To remove them would destroy the credibility of the government’s
immigration policy.
20% of foreign students stay on legally but there is still no way of knowing
that the other 80% have actually left.
There is extensive evidence of abuse, especially from the Indian
Sub-Continent. Students who overstay are harmful to our economy and
society.
A major effort is needed to cut out bogus students with a programme of
interviews, as well as measures to persuade genuine students to leave at the
end of their courses.
The UK already receives 200,000 non EU students every year. Annual growth of 5%
would increase the annual intake in ten years time to over 325,000. The system
must be tightened before this number is allowed to increase any further.
Commenting,
Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said “Our major
competitors, the US and Australia, both include students in net migration. The
difference is that they do not have a target for net migration – perhaps
because they are continents rather than small islands. The university lobby
would be foolish to dismiss the strong public concern about present massive
levels of immigration.”
Notes
to Editors:
On
Thursday 6 June 2013 there will be a Backbench Business Debate in the House of
Commons on Student Visas. The motion is ‘That this House notes the
recommendations of the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee,
the Home Affairs Select Committee, and the Committee of Public Accounts,
together with the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee and the EU
Sub-Committee on Home Affairs, Health and Education, for the removal of
students from net migration targets; and invites the Home Office to further
consider the conclusions of these Committees in developing its immigration
policy.’
In
the House of Lords there will be a debate. The motion is that ‘this House takes
note of the Report of the European Union Committee on The EU’s Global Approach
to Migration and Mobility (8th Report, Session 2012–13, HL Paper 91).’