Brexit migration report: 'No preference' for EU workers

[ForexMan]

EU workers coming to the UK should be given "no preference" for visas after Brexit, says a new report.

The Migration Advisory Committee also recommends that it should be easier for higher-skilled workers to migrate to the country.

It has called on the government to scrap a limit on highly-skilled workers altogether - currently 20,700 each year from non-EU countries.

The government has said it will "carefully consider" the proposals.

Labour backed the report, calling for an "end to discrimination" against non-EU migrants.

The report does not rule out offering preferential access to EU citizens in return for benefits in other areas as part of the Brexit negotiations - such as trade.

The BBC's assistant political editor, Norman Smith, said Theresa May has repeatedly refused to exclude this tactic.

The report said there was no evidence that increased European migration has damaged life in the UK.

It concluded that EU migrants paid more in tax than they took in benefits, contributed more to the NHS workforce than the healthcare they accessed, and had no effect on crime rates.

Chair of the MAC, Professor Alan Manning, said the overall the impacts of EEA migration had not had the "big costs that some people claim", but it had not had "big benefits" either.

The report said the fall in the value of the pound after the referendum vote probably raised prices by 1.7 per cent - a larger impact than the effect on wages and employment opportunities from the EU since 2004.
Post-Brexit policy

The MAC was asked to do the research in July 2017 by then Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

It is thought it will shape the government's post-Brexit immigration policy.

Norman Smith said Mrs May could begin to "sketch out" her post-Brexit immigration policy at October's Conservative Party conference.

He said the report would increase pressure on the PM to not compromise over freedom of movement during the Brexit negotiations.

The report made a number of proposals after analysing the impact of migration from the European Economic Area (EEA), taking evidence from more than 400 businesses, industry bodies and government departments.

The committee said it did "not see compelling reasons to offer a different set of rules" for workers from the EEA.

It recommended "a less restrictive regime for higher-skilled workers than for lower-skilled workers", adding: "Higher-skilled workers tend to have higher earnings so make a more positive contribution to the public finances."

.:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45556246