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The UK's Office for National Statistics has released its latest immigration figures which show a rise of 15,000 in the UK's net annual immigration figure over the previous year. The net immigration figure is calculated by finding the number of people who immigrate over a certain period that is people who enter the UK on a long term basis, and then subtracting the number of people who emigrate that is leave the UK on a long term basis.
Two high-profile UK businessmen have called on the government to relax immigration controls in the UK.
On Sunday 8th December 2013, Sir Stuart Rose, formerly the chairman of the iconic British retailer Marks & Spencer and now the chairman of retail delivery firm Ocado, told Sky News that the UK should welcome workers from Romania and Bulgaria.
Mark Boleat, the policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, has called on the UK's Prime Minister David Cameron to match his 'open for business rhetoric with action on visas'. Mr Boleat was writing in The London newspaper The Evening Standard.
He said that Mr Cameron had claimed, while on a visit to China, that 'an open Britain is the ideal partner for an opening China'. Mr Boleat questioned whether Britain is really as 'open' as Mr Cameron claimed.
The Mediterranean island of Malta announced on 19th November 2013 that it would delay the introduction of a new citizenship programme which would enable wealthy people to buy Maltese citizenship. Malta is an island in the Mediterranean which is a member of the European Union. Maltese citizens can therefore live and work in other EU Countries.
The Maltese government had previously announced that the scheme would open to applicants on 20th November 2013. Under the proposed rules of the scheme, applicants would have to make an 'investment' of €650,000 in Malta to receive Maltese citizenship.
Are you in the UK with a Tier 1 (Post Study Work) visa or Tier 4 Student visa? Are you working or have found work in the UK – perhaps in banking or IT? Unfortunately many employers are unable or unwilling to sponsor foreign workers.
The UK's Home Secretary, Theresa May MP, has suggested that individual EU states should be allowed to limit the number of migrants who immigrate from within the EU.
Writing for the PoliticsHome website, Mrs May wrote 'Why should individual member states not be allowed to impose a cap on numbers if European immigration reaches certain thresholds'.
Mrs May's article was published on 28th November 2013, the same day that the latest immigration figures were published by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS).