Unskilled immigration to rise
Updated on 12 November 2007
Channel 4 News has discovered that the government's planned points system could mean thousands of unskilled workers entering the country.
It was meant to make sure only highly skilled immigrants were allowed to work in Britain, but workers from Bulgaria, Romania and even outside the EU may be able to enter under new laws.
The head of the committee which recommends who should be allowed entry told this programme that migrant workers will be needed to help get London ready for the Olympics and to build hundreds of thousands of new homes.
With every brick that's laid the government gets that much closer to its goal of three million new homes by 2020. But are there enough willing hands to make light work of the government's target?
Whitehall officials believe the construction industry may need to draft in more labourers from overseas. So while in public the government talks tough on immigration, in private it recognises the industries our economy depends on need a more flexible approach.
As things stand construction companies have to employ British or EU labourers. They're banned from bringing in low-skilled workers from outside the EU. But senior government officials have said those strict immigration restrictions might have to be relaxed to deal with a labour shortage in the construction industry.
One property company developing London flats wants ministers to be more relaxed over migrant workers. Sixty per cent of the labourers at its site are from overseas, but their boss worries that there may soon not be enough hard-working immigrants to go round.
It is estimated the Olympics will create 33, 500 new jobs in the construction industry. Filling those vacancies from the existing pool of labour might be hard enough. But meeting house-building targets as well could be altogether more of a challenge.
Professor Metcalf is to advise ministers on the government's new immigration points system. He's chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, which will decide how many points migrants need to get to come to this country.
But are there enough willing hands to make light work of the government's target?
The government has always maintained his committee will help limit immigration, as only highly-skilled workers would secure enough points to be allowed in. But with concerns about a shortage of low-skilled labour, government officials have told Channel 4 News his committee could decide Britain needs brickies as well as medics.
As he and his officials begin work at the Home Office, they know they're entering politically contentious territory. The government has already hit controversy over the disclosure that 1.5m foreign workers have come to the UK in the last decade. There will be no shortage of critics if ministers relax restrictions on low-skilled immigrants.
Gordon Brown welcomed one highly-skilled foreigner to Downing Street today, the Hungarian prime minister. It's fair to say Mr Brown's pledge to find British jobs for British workers wasn't on the agenda.
Borrowing such rhetoric from the BNP might be popular with the right-wing press, but the reality is if the government wants to deliver on its housing and sporting dreams, the government may well have to take a more liberal stance towards immigrants.
