The UK government seeks to limit migration by prohibiting overseas students from bringing their relatives with them while moving to the country for studying, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2023) The UK government seeks to limit migration by prohibiting overseas students from bringing their relatives with them while moving to the country for studying, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said on Tuesday.
Braverman introduced a set of measures aimed at reducing migration of students' dependants, which rose from 16,000 in 2019 to nearly 136,000 in 2022.
"This package includes ... removing the right for international students to bring dependants unless they are on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes," Braverman said.
The proposed measures imply intensified supervision of foreign student migration and education processes, Braverman stated.
"This package strikes the right balance between acting decisively on tackling net migration and protecting the economic benefits that students can bring to the UK," she added.
On May 16, The Times reported that the UK government approved Braverman's proposal to ban overseas students from bringing their families to the UK, while rejecting several other proposals to curb migration, due to dissensions in the Parliament.
The measures proposed by Braverman included increasing the minimum salaries for skilled workers hired by companies, making it harder for migrants to bring their family members to the UK, reducing the time of stay for foreign students after the end of their course, and removing them once they fail to finish studies.
The growing number of migrants coming to the UK has been a pressing issue for the country for years and only intensified after Brexit. Net migration to the UK reached a record high of 504,000 in the year to June 2022, according to government data. The Times reported that the numbers for the current year, which are set to be released this week, are expected to increase to between 700,000 and one million.
