UK Immigration Policy Tightens after November 27

200,000 jobs barred to non-European migrants

* Alan Travis, home affairs editor
* The Guardian, Wednesday November 12 2008

Two hundred thousand skilled jobs in Britain will be closed to non-European migrants from November 27, when the new points-based immigration system comes into effect, the Home Office announced yesterday.

The official shortage occupations list, published yesterday, which will be opened to skilled workers from outside Europe, covers 800,000 jobs, compared with the estimated 1m vacancies covered by the existing work permit system. The largest occupations being closed to non-EU migrants are doctors, secondary school teachers and most nursing jobs.

The final list of professions covers 100,000 posts more than the provisional list proposed by the migration advisory committee, which is made up of labour market economists. The flow of skilled migration from outside Europe is expected to fall by between 30,000 and 70,000 people a year as a result of the introduction of the shortage occupation list...more