Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Phillip Lee and Damian Green(14 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Dr Phillip Lee (Bracknell) (Con)
17. What recent progress she has made on reform of the immigration system.
The Minister for Immigration (Damian Green)
In just six months, the coalition Government have made significant progress in the reform of the immigration system. We have introduced an interim limit on non-EU economic migrants and consulted on proposals for the annual limit. We are also reviewing student and family routes. We have made significant progress towards ending the detention of children and we have also begun exploring improvements to the asylum system.
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.