Migration Lecture with Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith

Today I attended a special lecture on Migration. The speaker was UK Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. Her presentation entitled 'Shared Protection, Shared Values: next steps on migration' outlined how the government plans to deal with migration. She noted that at present the government is conducting consultations across the UK to garner views on migration. The Home Secretary also stressed the importance of immigrants to speak the english language as this will make their integration smoother.

Issues of importance

1. Immigrants contributed £6b to GDP growth last Fiscal Year
2. Applicants for visas will be required to take fingerprints as of April next year
3. In the next few months, starting March persons applying for permanent residency will be classified as follows:

• Tier 1 for investors and new business persons
• Tier 2 for highly skilled migrants to fill existing shortage
• Tier 3 for low skills
• Tier 4 for students
• Tier 5 for temporary workers

You can listen to the entire presentation by clicking the following link.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/publicLecturesAndEvents.htm