Lord Gordon of Strathblane
Main Page: Lord Gordon of Strathblane (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Gordon of Strathblane's debates with the Home Office
(6 years, 10 months ago)
Lords ChamberThere has been a tier 4 visa pilot—that is possibly what the noble Lord is referring to—and we will evaluate its effectiveness. However, he actually makes a case for the fact that we welcome international students here.
I jump back to the point made by the noble Earl, Lord Attlee: if we applied that logic, surely we would start to treat tourists as immigrants.
A tourist should come here for a specified length of time, which is not usually a year and is generally under three months. When that stay becomes a year, that person becomes somebody who avails themselves of the infrastructure and public services of this country.