Cap on Skilled Immigration

A permanent annual cap comes in to effect in the UK from today. The cap will be 21,700 annually with 4200 places this month and 1500 each month after that.

Various comments:

"The cap on skilled immigration is an example of how the target is leading to bad policy. It will keep out the highly-skilled migrants who contribute most to the UK economy and to the public purse: the people that the public aren’t especially worried about. " - Reducing Immigration: Caps, limits and the perils of political targets By Sarah Mulley

According to Damian Green “To often over the past ten years it has been the first resort. Britain became addicted to immigration as a solution to a number of problems and we have to wean ourselves off that addiction." - Britain is "addicted to immigration" warns minister by Tom Whitehead.

"This is a short-sighted policy on the part of the government and is indicative of the coalition's chaotic approach to higher education reform. It will hamper universities already struggling to maintain their world-leading status in a hostile funding climate, and will contribute to a decline in "innovation and skills" that we all will be lamenting in ten years' time." - Why the immigration cap spells trouble for universities by Tamson Pietsch

"It is clearly essential that unduly tight restrictions on economic migration should not impede the economic recovery on which so much else depends. This appears unlikely due to the generous limit and partial nature of the cap; it doesn’t cover ICTs or in country extensions." - The cap on economic migration - will it have much effect? Migration Watch UK

Also read Q&A: UK immigration cap By Dominic Casciani