If you come to Britain and can't support yourself, you must leave

Telegraph

10 hours ago

For the 25 years up to 1997, according to the Centre for Policy Studies, net migration was 68,000. In the 25 years that followed, however, that figure shot up to nearly 6 million. Our immigration system is out of control.
It isn't just about the number of people who've come here, unsustainable though that is. Our migration system has also been highly un-selective. The vast majority of those who've arrived in the last few years haven't come to work, and didn't need to be earning a particular salary – or often anything at all – to get their visa.
Even those who did come here to work are often employed in low-paid jobs, and won't be paying enough in tax to account for the pressure that they put on public services, or the costs that they'll incur later in life.
According to the researcher Karl Williams, 72 per cent of those who came as 'skilled workers' in 2022-23 earned below the UK average salary, with 54 percent likely earning less than half of that average.
But after just five years here, most of these people will qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain, or ILR. With ILR, migrants can access welfare, social housing, and free healthcare, as well as stay permanently in the UK and apply for citizenship.
On average, the Government spends £34,000 looking after somebody in the last year of their life. Only a small minority of recent migrants will pay enough in tax to cover those costs over the entire time that they're here – let alone to cover the cost of the benefits and services that they and their family will use over their lifetimes. It's going to cost us hundreds of billions of pounds. We simply can't afford it.
But it can be fixed. Earlier this year, the Conservatives proposed a plan to reform our immigration system, including by introducing a hard cap on visas and stopping ILR from entitling people to state support. We also proposed extending the qualifying period from five years to ten.
This wouldn't just mean that it takes longer for migrants to be eligible for ILR status. It would also give us an opportunity to review the visas of those who are already here. Those who come to Britain from abroad must be able to support themselves, and must be earning enough to contribute more in tax than they will cost over their lifetime. If they can't, their visa must not be renewed, and they must leave.
The Government voted against that plan, but they've committed to a consultation on ILR in the autumn. We must use that opportunity to push them not just to extend the qualifying period for ILR, including for those who are already here, but also to refuse to reissue visas to those who won't end up contributing enough.
The era of mass migration has been a disaster. People can see it in their rising rents, in the pressure on their public services, and in their increasingly divided communities. Most disgracefully of all, the British people have voted to avert that disaster, time and time again. Government after government has failed to heed their warning.
It's a complete scandal, and it's probably the single biggest reason why trust in our political system is in such short supply. Rebuilding that trust means building a migration system that's limited and selective – but it also means undoing the harm that has already been done. We can still avert the coming disaster around ILR, and we must.