British Immigration - In between the numbers

After all the tough talk, today ConDem British Government announced the immigration caps and system tightening. The final numbers for non-EU immigrants is fixed at 21,700. This is the open category - highly skilled immigrants cap. This is similar to HSMP programme or Australian / Canadian style point system.

Then there is another category of Inter Company Transfers (ICT). All non-EU companies put together could bring further 22,500 employees. This is sort of US H1 visa. There is a catch - that actually put Indian IT companies (who take large chunk in the ICT category) in advantageous position. For those employees who are transferred for less than year, Indian companies could pay £24,000 pm (with this money, no one can lead even a middle class life). And for those on longer term transfer, the companies must pay £40,000 at the minimum. This means, Indian companies would actually benefit by paying less and rotating them each year. This will probably help, British Government because - the visas have to be applied for each year.

There is no cap on family reunions. But Government clearly stated that, they would control this category. How? it is difficult to stop the visas for the Pakistani and Bangladeshi families who in majority (in excess of 75%) cases, marry off their children to bride / grooms from their home lands and bring them to UK.

For British public these numbers still tell the less than half of the true story.

In each visa category, once visa is granted - the subject can bring his / her dependents. Secondly, the dependents in most of the cases (spouses), have automatic right to work. This is the fundamental difference to US  H1 category. In US, the dependents would not get an automatic right. General understanding is - most of these immigrants have high qualifications and the dependents could find jobs (with little difficulty in tougher economic conditions).

Assuming, each visa holder is bringing on average 1.5 times dependents (spouse and children) below is the net immigration for the next year:

Points category: 21,700 + 10850 = 32,500

ICT category   : 22,500 + 11250 = 33,750

Family category:                  10,000 (incl ancestory visas)

Total                             76,250

Between headline figures which is already watered down due to compulsions by the Government, real numbers does not really speak of the commitment by Government to reduce the immigration. Now, the Government succumbed to pressure, when economy recovers there is no reason why it would relax these number furthers

The companies looking for ICT's can always play around market dynamics (local pool vs Indian pool) and the upper salary caps.

The question is - is it really worth coming to UK? Looking at what is happening to Ireland or Greece and the rest of European countries, Britain is no different. United Kingdom is able to print money in the name of QE and survive that other EU countries cannot do on their in crisis.

Time only would tell, if Britain is still a shining destination or a gloomy island for the immigrants. Meanwhile, Government would continue to spin around the numbers while the actual immigrants experience the realities.