Bob Blackman
Main Page: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)Department Debates - View all Bob Blackman's debates with the Home Office
(14 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)
10. What recent progress she has made on reform of the immigration system.
Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)
12. What recent progress she has made on reform of the immigration system.
Dr Phillip Lee (Bracknell) (Con)
17. What recent progress she has made on reform of the immigration system.
Damian Green
I agree with my hon. Friend that it is not just the economic routes we are looking at—as I have said, we are examining other routes. We are, of course, committed to attracting the brightest and best students to the UK, and we welcome legitimate students coming here to study legitimate courses, but there has been and still is significant abuse of the student route. Part of our summer crackdown on illegal immigration has been aimed at bogus colleges. We have suspended the licences of another five bogus colleges in the past three months, and I am happy to assure him and the House that we will continue to crack down as hard as possible on those using the student route to promote illegal immigration.
Bob Blackman
My hon. Friend has referred to the previous Government’s policy of relying on a points-based system for controlling immigration. Can he elucidate on the figures he cited on the success of tier 1 migrants—by definition, the brightest and best—in obtaining highly skilled jobs?
Damian Green
The detail of the tier 1 research is fascinating because, as I say, it showed that nearly a third of the people who came in under that route were doing essential but low-skilled jobs—they were shop assistants, they were working in fast food outlets, and so on. Those are all jobs that need to be done, but upwards of 2 million people are unemployed in this country and they will find it very strange that those jobs, in particular, are being done by people who have come to this country under a route that is supposed to be specifically designed for the most highly skilled. That situation seems to be unfair to many of our British workers.