UK Immigration News

An opinion poll has showed that people in the UK are much more likely to view membership of the EU negatively than people in France, Germany or Poland. 26% of British people are broadly in favour of EU membership whereas 42% see Britain's membership of the EU as a bad thing.

By far the most unpopular aspect of EU membership among British respondents was immigration. Only 14% of respondents thought immigration into the UK from within the EU was a good thing whereas 64% thought it was not a good thing.

The UK's immigration minister Mark Harper has told the BBC that spot-checks of people's immigration status at UK railway stations will continue. Mr Harper said that the operations were intelligence-led and 'successful in targeting people who have no right to be in the United Kingdom'.

He said that there were 'not based on racial profiling' but 'based on intelligence and on the behaviour of individuals'.

The YouGov polling organisation has carried out polling in the UK recently which shows that the UK's population has complex views on immigration. On the whole, people in the UK approve of economic immigration but disapprove of family-based immigration.

UK people are overwhelmingly in favour of encouraging wealthy investors to settle in the UK. They also approve of allowing international students to come to study in UK universities. There is also a sizeable majority in favour of allowing highly skilled workers to come and work in the UK.

On Tuesday 26th November 2013, the Scottish National Party revealed its white paper Scotland's Future; Your Guide to an Independent Future which contains a detailed programme of policies that would be introduced by the first SNP government of an independent Scotland.

SNP leader Alex Salmond said that Scotland would introduce 'a points-based immigration system targeted at particular Scottish needs'.

The UK's immigration minister Mark Harper has predicted that there will not be a huge surge in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria when controls preventing most Bulgarians and Romanians from travelling to the UK to live and work expire on 31st December 2013.

Mr Harper told journalists that there would be no repeat of the events of 2004 when eight countries joined the EU at the same time. Unlike in most other western European Union countries nationals of these eight Countries were free to work in the UK on joining the EU.

An influential committee of the UK's House of Commons has criticised a proposal in the government's immigration bill which would require landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants.

The Home Affairs Committee says that this is likely to make it more difficult for all foreign nationals to find accommodation in the UK as landlords may prefer not to rent to foreign nationals rather than face a fine for renting to an illegal resident.