London: Foreign workers seeking to come to Britain will need a salary of more than 30,000 pounds as ministers propose an increase in the salary threshold for skilled professionals as part of efforts to reduce net migration levels, said a media report.
The proposal, which is yet to be finalised, comes ahead of Thursday’s net migration data for the year ending June 2023, which is expected to stick at around 500,000, The Telegraph reported.
At present, workers outside shortage occupations require a salary of at least 26,200 pounds to take up jobs in the UK, which is significantly lower than the median wage of 33,000 pounds.
The number entering the UK minus those leaving, that is the net migration, hit a record peak of 637,000 in the year ending September 2022 before falling to 606,000 in the year ending December 2022.
Experts anticipate it may be around 500,000, significantly surpassing the government’s 2019 pledge to reduce net migration overall, the UK-based daily reported.
The surge has been fuelled by the UK granting visas to more than 1.4 million migrants per year to work, study or escape conflict or oppression.
The proposals to reduce net migration were pushed within the government by Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman, who was recently sacked as Home Secretary.
“Net migration is far too high. For more than 30 years, the British public has been voting for controlled migration. But politicians of all stripes have failed to deliver the migration system that they’re seeking,” Jenrick told The Telegraph last week.
The report did not specify whether the proposals will include restrictions on the number of foreign care workers, currently 120,000 a year, and on migrants bringing their families to the UK.
With inputs from agencies