John Baron MP presses Government over immigration

MP says UK must get a grip.

 During Home Office Questions in the House of Commons this week, John pressed the Immigration Minister as to what the Government is doing to reduce the abuse of family migration route, whereby the families of recent immigrants can join them in the UK. Problems can arise when these family members do not have a good grasp of English. A key aspect of immigrations is how successfully new arrivals integrate themselves into British society. The inability to speak English is a major stumbling block to achieving this.

 John asked:

 “Amid the UK Border Agency’s problems with handling asylum cases, will the Minister assure the House that spouses coming to live here in the UK will have to show a commitment to speak and learn English – for their benefit as well as the benefit of society as a whole?

Damian Green (Minister for Immigration) replied saying that the Government has introduced requirements that spouses and partners must demonstrate a basic knowledge of the English language before they are granted a marriage visa, so that they can integrate fully and participate fully in life in this country.

 John said afterwards:

  “Under the previous Labour Government, net immigration reached 2.2 million people – twice the population of Birmingham. The Immigration system was a shambles. This government is taking action such as capping economic immigration from outside the EU, reforming the shadow visa system to tackle abuse, and reforming the family visa route to ensure that those coming here do not become a burden on the welfare system. However, more needs to be done!”

 “The UK should remain a tolerant nation when it comes to genuine asylum seekers and should continue to attract the highest and the best when it comes to economic migration. But excessive immigration leads to undue pressures on communities, which is why we have to get immigration back down to sustainable levels and ensure those who come here do integrate in our society.”

 Ends

Word Count: 337

Date: 9^th November 2011

 Notes to Editors

Other commitments made by the Government to control immigration include:-

• Tackling Forced Marriage which is ‘little more than slavery’. Government will criminalise the breach of Forced Marriage Prevention Orders and will consult on creating an offence, in its own right, of forcing someone to marry. To do so we will work closely with those who provide support to women forced into marriage to make sure that such a step would not prevent or hinder them from reporting such cases (Prime Minister’s Speech, 10 October 2011).

• Putting British history and culture at the heart of the British citizenship test. We will revise Labour’s citizenship test which currently has no question on British history but instead has extensive questions on the roles and powers of the main institutions of Europe and on the benefits system within the UK (Prime Minister’s Speech, 10 October 2011).

• Tackling abuses of article 8. Theresa May: ‘we will change the immigration rules to ensure that the misinterpretation of Article Eight of the ECHR – the right to a family life – no longer prevents the deportation of people who shouldn’t be here….The meaning of Article Eight should no longer be perverted. So I will write it into our immigration rules that when foreign nationals are convicted of a criminal offence or breach our immigration laws: when they should be removed, they will be removed’ (Speech to Conference, 4 October 2011).

• Capped economic migration. Since April 2011 the number of non-EU skilled workers employers are able to bring here to work has been limited to 20,700 a year. Employers cannot bring in any non-EU unskilled workers (Home Office Press Release, 6 April 2011).

• Review the level of the cap. The Government will ask the Migration Advisory Committee to review the level of the limit – currently the quota has been undersubscribed every month since it was introduced, with businesses currently using less than half of the monthly quotas (Prime Minister’s Speech, 10 October 2011).

• Allow the best, genuine students only, reducing numbers by a quarter. Students who want to come here should be able to speak English, to support themselves financially without taking paid employment, and to show they are coming for study, not for work. Our proposals will reduce student numbers by 70 to 80,000 visas or over 25 per cent of the total number (Home Secretary’s Statement, 22 March 2011).

• Tackling abuses of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. We will end the abuse of ‘the right to a family life’, which often prevents the removal of foreign nationals convicted of a criminal offence or in breach of immigration law. We will amend immigration rules to ensure a better balance between an individual’s right to a family life, expressed in Article 8 of the ECHR, and the wider public interest, as expressed in the rest of Article 8, in controlling immigration (Home Secretary’s Speech, 4 October 2011).

• Breaking the link between temporary routes and permanent settlement. The Government launched a consultation on breaking this link between temporary and permanent migration. Damian Green, Immigration Minister, said: ‘Settlement has become almost automatic for those who choose to stay. This needs to change. The immigration system has got to be made to work properly’ (Home Office Press Release, 9 June 2011).