What’s going to happen to immigration in a post-Brexit era? That’s the million dollar question. Whilst there has been huge speculation as to what our immigration system and net migration figures are likely to look like going forward, little clarity has been provided as yet.
Following the leak of the draft Labour Manifesto, it has been reported that Jeremy Corbyn has agreed to toughen up his message on immigration. The Labour Party has acknowledged that free movement of workers is unlikely to be possible once the UK leaves the EU, but has stated that imposing new immigration controls will not be top of its list of priorities if it wins the election. It’s not really clear where that message leaves us when trying to predict what the new model is going to look like.
The Conservatives have indicated that they will stick by pledges made in David Cameron’s 2010 manifesto to cut migration to “tens of thousands”, despite having missed the target after making the same promise in 2010 and 2015. Again, it’s not clear from their rhetoric so far how they hope to achieve this, although Prime Minister May has reiterated that when we leave the EU we will have the opportunity to make sure we have control of our borders.
UKIP has gone one step further, as it is prone to do, pledging to cut net migration levels to zero within five years by asking skilled workers and students to get visas and banning migration into the UK for unskilled and low skilled workers. This time it’s not clear how UKIP intend to do the maths to achieve a net migration level of zero.
And then there’s the Liberal Democrats who are against stricter migration controls. Details of the party’s policies on migration are yet to be revealed but Tim Farron recently tweeted that “immigration is a blessing and not a curse”.
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