Government’s Own Immigration Adviser Warns That “Points-Based Immigration” Is a Hoax
The Government’s own senior immigration adviser has warned that the so-called “points-based skilled” immigration system is a hoax which imports vast numbers of low-skilled workers who take jobs away from British people.
According to media reports, Professor David Metcalf, chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, said he was “stunned” at the level of exploitation of the “highly skilled” visa system.
Professor Metcalf said there were more than 700 educational institutions which were handing out “qualifications” which gave their “students” the right to stay in Britain.
Amongst the “educational institutions” Professor Metcalf listed were the “College of Integrated Chinese Medicine,” which teaches acupuncture and ancient medicine, the “Chicken Shed Theatre Company,” and “Circus Space,” an organisation which apparently trains jugglers.
Astonishingly, the qualifications handed out to students allow them to be categorised as “highly-skilled migrants” and legally qualify for visas to stay in Britain.
Professor Metcalf warned that “rather than filling highly skilled jobs, it was possible that foreign students were taking lower-paid jobs away from people born here.”
His assessment was contained in a report on the Government’s much-vaunted “points-based immigration system” which is supposed to assess the skills of people wanting to live in Britain.
The Conservative Party has endorsed the idea behind the “skilled immigration” system, and has only criticised it because it is open ended.
Professor Metcalf said: “There are about 150 of these bodies that are universities and there are another 600-odd that are not proper universities.
“They are basically further education colleges which get their degrees validated by one of the universities. What we think is, without being overly elitist, that we should have a good look at these institutions to see if it is legitimate for all the students on all the courses to get post study work visas.”
A total of 42,000 students were granted two-year visas in the past year under what is called the Post-Study Work Route (PSWR).
The allegation that these so-called “skilled immigrants” are actually working in their “specialist” occupations has been disproved by a recent Government survey of students granted post study work visas.
One in ten worked in “elementary occupations” such as packing boxes or in semi- skilled jobs such as machine operators. A further 15 percent worked in sales or customer services, 4 percent in “personal service occupations” and only 3 percent worked in skilled trades such as plumbing.
