August 2, 2009
New Points System for Immigrants Unveiled
The Bad Conscience Post
August 2nd, 2009
NEW POINTS SYSTEM FOR IMMIGRANTS UNVEILED
MINISTERS will tomorrow unveil a new “points-based” immigration system, whereby applicants will be expected to “earn” a British passport by accumulating points for voluntary work, speaking English, paying taxes or having “useful” skills. Being willing to live in parts of the country where skills shortages are high is also likely to gain points.
The move will end the established system, whereby anyone who has lived in Britain for 5 years without a criminal record has a near automatic right to British citizenship. Instead, the Government will be able to raise or lower hurdles, according to economic or political criteria as it sees fit.
The move will be followed in the autumn by a review of the points-based system for temporary immigrants, which is expected to lead to restrictions on work permits for skilled workers coming from outside the EU to fill job shortages.
Reaction to the Government’s move has been widespread. Kerry Jones, a call centre operator from Sheffield, said she thought the moves were “a good idea”.
24-year-old Jones, who trained as a call centre operator after studying for 3 years at Leeds Metropolitan University to the tune of several thousand pounds in state subsidy, after thousands more in state schooling, said: “These immigrants can’t just come over here and expect to get citizenship just because they’ve been here for 5 years. I’ve been in this country for 24 years; I’m a citizen because I was born here. These immigrants shouldn’t just be given citizenship on a plate; they should have to earn it like I did.”
Steffan Pawlovski, a recent Polish immigrant who works as a plumber in London also welcomed the Government’s announcement: “At the end of the day, people like me shouldn’t expect that we can become citizens of this country just because we may have lived here for 5 years. We should accept that it would be unfair on all the people who were simply born here if we too could have citizenship without passing a series of tests levied by the Government and designed to pander to popular fears about immigration.”
Pawlovski, who has lived in Britain for 4 years, is ambivalent about what the new tests could mean for him: “Look, I may have worked hard, absorbed the indigenous culture and decided I would like to take an oath to the Queen so that I could become a fully fledged member of this State, thus leaving behind all the inconveniences of non-citizen status. But it’s not up to me. If the Government decides my English isn’t good enough, my skills aren’t worthy enough, or my existence isn’t politically advantageous enough, then who am I to disagree? It’s only fair: this is the exact same standard applied to natural-born Britons who receive citizenship at birth, and all the privileges citizenship of a former colonial power entails.”
Leader of the British National party, Nick Griffin, also welcomed the announcements: “I am delighted. It just goes to show that you don’t have to be in power to influence the political consensus.”
He continued: “Of course, what the BNP ultimately desires is control of the state. But until that day comes, we welcome any moves by Labour to shift the consensus on immigration to the right. Not only does this increase our electoral acceptability by making our views increasingly mainstream whilst hollowing out what Labour ever stood for, it helps promote the racist xenophobic hatred that my party advocates. British jobs for British workers, as I’ve always said.”
An Abolished Man said,
August 10, 2009 at 12:31 am
What nonsense.
I suppose you want people who can’t speak English, who hate us and completely disagree with our values to come here then?
We have no obligation to grant them citizenship.