The UK government is seeking to tighten visa requirements to curb the number of workers arriving in the country through legal routes.
The measures — outlined in the Immigration White Paper — propose new graduate level requirements for skilled visa applicants and limits on lower-skilled visas. A group will be assigned to identify where industries rely too much on foreign labor, according to a Home Office announcement Sunday.
The Home Office said one of the measures will be to grant lower-skilled time-limited visas only on the basis of strong evidence of worker shortages and where employers can commit to increasing domestic skills and recruitment. It will outline the measures Monday, when it publishes the white paper in parliament.
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Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to reduce migration to Britain in response to concerns over the pressure this is placing on public services. The issue prompted protests shortly after Labour took office last summer, which descended into right-wing violence.
The changes come after an explosion of skilled worker visas, which have tripled since then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government created the program in 2020. The program was framed as a way for the UK to exert more control over its borders after the country left the European Union.
The UK’s net rate of migration remains historically high after hitting a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023. The number of people staying permanently in the UK rose 80 percent between 2021 and 2024, while the number of dependents entering the UK jumped 360 percent between 2021 and 2023.
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The government has been criticized as failing to consider the impact on businesses and for not doing enough to prevent the exploitation of visa holders, such as trafficking or debt bondage — particularly in the care sector.
Chris Philp, the Conservatives’ home affairs spokesman, said the measures do not go far enough in addressing the surge in legal migration. He called on Labour to support a binding cap on immigration and his party’s proposal to repeal the entire Human Rights Act from immigration matters.
