---

Managed Migration

They will have to be, in an increasingly dynamic, fast moving and global labour market. I demur from some of my hon. Friend’s assumptions. Demand for IT workers still exists, but it is no longer located just in Europe. It is international. I describe the situation in terms of circularity. We need to go beyond—this underpins the points-based system too—the notion of the classic migration routes, where people moved from one place to another because the opportunities for their personal advancement were better. There is now increasing circularity. IT skills are a good example. Indian investors who are investing significantly in the UK tell me that they would like second and third-generation British people of Indian origin to stay in the UK to fill jobs in the IT sector. Their fear is that because they are of Indian origin, people are going off for three, four or five years to Bangalore and various other ““silicon valleys”” in India, where they can have a far nicer lifestyle and greater reward for their skills. Indian investors would prefer them to stay in the UK and work for them here. That sort of circularity is increasingly part of the process of immigration—it is no longer simply a case of people moving from here to there in the classic model. I go along with my hon. Friend in part, but not in substance. Central to the points-based system is the notion that economic migration is good. I am grateful that, across the piece, people have welcomed the publication of the paper. The CBI, the TUC, the British Council, Universities UK and a host of other organisations have given a broad welcome to the direction that it sets out. It does not give every single detail of where we are going to arrive at the points-based system. It is, in part, a response to a lengthy and extensive consultation process that took place from July to November, as outlined in the back of the document. It has not only received a broad welcome but created a broad desire among all the sectors that matter to work and engage with the Home Office to take things forward. In terms of the time line, we think that we are about 18 months away from the full introduction of the overall points-based system. Bearing in mind that it started as an idea in the February 2005 speech that outlined the five-year plan, if the system is implemented by around February 2008, the most significant change in our migration policy in 34 years will have gone from a standing start to full implementation in the best part of three years, which is not slow in anybody’s terms. Last Friday, we held two post-publication events for what we are now supposed to call the stakeholders. The morning session was for the business community. Some 700 people turned up, and it went terribly well, with lots of questions asked and another broad welcome given. In the afternoon, between 250 and 300 people from the education sector discussed where we go from here. It is important that that engagement continues, and it shall. One of the realities underlying the scheme is that there is now a broader European Union labour market that needs to be factored into the equation. By the end of the transition period of 2009 to 2011, there will be an open labour market across 25 countries. It is important that the points-based system is seen in the context of everything else that we are doing as regards border controls, the new asylum model and so on. The system must be, and will be, robust against abuse. Only those of benefit to the UK should be admitted, and once here they should comply with their conditions of leave. Equally central to the scheme is that those who should benefit from migration, particularly employers and education institutions, should work far more readily with the Government to ensure that that is the case.