May 13, 2025 08:59 PM IST
UK PM Keir Starmer’s immigration policy shift, risking an “island of strangers,” may harm the economy by limiting student work visas and care worker access.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer chose some ugly phrasing while announcing an overhaul of the country’s immigration policy — that rising immigration risked making the UK “an island of strangers”. This betrays a capitulation to the politics of xenophobia and racism identified with Reforms UK, a rival party of Starmer’s Labour, which recorded an unexpectedly good showing in the recent polls. The political cost of such panic aside, Starmer needs to take a careful look at the long-term effects of his immigration squeeze.
Two key changes announced illustrate the myopia of the immigration white paper. One, the decision to shorten the period available for foreign students graduating from UK universities to work in the country, from 24 months to 18 months. With substantially larger fees than universities at home, it was the promise of an extended period of work that drew students from countries such as India and China to the UK. As per a 2023 analysis, international students (Indians are one of the largest non-EU student-migrant groups in the UK), contributed 10 times more to the UK economy than they drew from it — through university fees, local spending, role in innovation and research, addressing skills demand, etc. Diminishing the scope of this visa route will affect the British economy.
Similarly, the decision to stop dedicated visas for care workers — another visa route that had significant demand from India — could prove a solution worse than the problem for the UK. The fact is care-work requirements will only rise for an ageing nation like the UK, and with the local supply of workers far lower than the demand and expensive, the costs of care work could shoot up sharply.
Starmer and other mainline-party leadership need to set aright the narrative on immigration and the impact on the UK economy. Reimagining the UK as an exclusive Anglo-Saxon enclave revolts against the flow of history, and running it will be a costly affair.
