Immigration and the Queen’s Speech
The Queen’s speech has hinted at changes to the immigration rules post-Brexit.
Immigration post-Brexit has raised concerns on many fronts, for instance; from employers concerned about a chronic skills shortage for their businesses; from EU citizens working and residing in the UK about their future; and similarly from UK citizens working and residing in the EU about their future.
It has been suggested that in future immigration from non-EU countries and migration to non-EU countries will need to increase as the UK looks to undertake business in the wider global market. It will be interesting to see how, if at all, the new national policies on immigration will address that eventuality.
In the meantime, here is what the Background Briefing to the Queen’s Speech of 21 June 2017 has to say about the Immigration Bill, which will be drafted and published after a period of consultation.
The purpose of the Bill is to:
- Allow the Government to end the EU’s rules on free movement of EU nationals in the UK and make the migration of EU nationals and their family members subject to relevant UK law once the UK has left the EU, whilst still allowing the UK to attract the brightest and the best.
The main benefits of the Bill would be:
- To ensure we have the flexibility to create a fair and sustainable immigration system that gives us control over the numbers of people who come to the UK from the EU.
The main elements of the Bill are:
- To allow the Government to repeal EU law on immigration, primarily free movement, that will be saved and converted into UK law by the Great Repeal Bill.
- To allow the Government to make the migration of EU nationals and their family members subject to relevant UK law once the UK has left the EU.
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