Brown promises new immigration controls
Updated on 12 November 2009
Gordon Brown announces a review of student visas to clamp down on people applying to study in Britain with the intention of working here illegally.
The announcement came during the prime minister's first major speech on immigration since entering Number 10.
The prime minister announced that he would reduce the numbers of professions which can recruit from outside Europe and make it tougher to become a British citizen.
And he promised to reclaim immigration as a political issue, saying it should seen as neither taboo nor racist.
Vacancies for hospital consultants, civil engineers, aircraft engineers and ship's officers will all be removed from the list, and the migration advisory committee will decide over the coming year whether to remove more engineering roles, skilled chefs and care workers.
Mr Brown said local workers will be given more opportunities to apply for available jobs by forcing job centres to advertise vacant jobs for four weeks before they can recruit from overseas.
At the moment, job centres can place overseas workers in jobs once they have been advertised for a fortnight.
Training opportunities will be increased for the resident population rather than a new wave of incomers from abroad.
Mr Brown said: "As growth returns, I want to see rising levels of skills, wages and employment among those resident here, rather than employers having to resort to recruiting people from abroad."
