THE United Kingdom (UK) has announced plans to end overseas recruitments for social care workers as part of a strategy to overhaul its immigration system.
The new policy, outlined in the recently released white paper titled “Restoring Control over the Immigration System”, showed that the UK aimed to curb the increasing number of migrant workers in the social care sector and address long-term demographic challenges.
According to the white paper, net migration in the UK reached an unprecedented 906,000 by June 2023, a significant rise from 224,000 in June 2019.
While the latest figures from June 2024 show a decrease to 728,000, the numbers remain considerably higher than anticipated, prompting the government to reconsider its immigration policies.
The publication noted that one of the key contributors to the surge had been the health and care visa route, introduced in 2022 to address workforce shortages.
The number of overseas social care workers rose from 37,000 in 2022 to 108,000 in 2023, which it said highlighted the increasing reliance on foreign labour to fill essential care roles.
“A big increase in overseas recruitment, including a shift towards lower-skilled migration, with a substantial increase in worker visas issued below degree level. In 2022, only 16,200 visas were issued to people taking up lower-skilled jobs. By 2023, this had increased to 27,900 following increases in people coming to work in food preparation and hospitality occupations.
“The expansion of the health & care visa route in February 2022 to include the social care workforce also triggered a sharp increase in the number of people arriving via this route to work in below degree-level jobs, from 37,000 in 2022 to 108,000 in 2023.
“A rapid increase in sponsored study visas at lower-ranked education institutions, driven by a rapid increase in international students applying for master’s degrees in the UK. UK visas for universities globally ranked between 601 and 1,200 increased by 49 per cent between 2021 and 2023; whilst visas for top 100 universities fell by seven per cent over the same period,” the publication added.
The policy change, according to the UK government, will mean that no new applications for social care visas from overseas will be accepted.
However, to minimise disruption in the sector, the government said it would allow those currently in the UK on such visas to extend their stay or switch to other roles within the care sector until 2028.
It noted that after this transition period, the visa route would be permanently closed to new international recruits.
The UK government added that the length of the graduate visa, which allows international students to remain in the UK after their studies, will be reduced from two years to 18 months.
It stressed that English language proficiency requirements would be raised across various immigration routes, adding that adult dependents of skilled workers and students would need to demonstrate basic English (A1 level).
This will progress to higher levels for visa extensions and settlement, and the standard required level for settlement will also increase from B1 to B2.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M