Updates on immigration, visas, working, living, visiting the UK

THE rumour mill is still peddling the myth that immigration is bad for the UK, causing division throughout society.

As someone who benefited from working in a multicultural environment, it is about time some of these myths where busted.

People say immigrants claim more benefits than those born in the UK but the truth is very different. They cannot access the welfare system until they have been living here for three months – and the Government plans to extend this to a full year.

Department For Work AndPensions’ figures show that of 1.44 million people claiming JobSeekers’ Allowance (JSA) in February 2011, fewer than 38,000 were from other EU countries – around 2.6 per cent of total claimants, roughly in line with the percentage of the population. Read more »

The usual enquiries about Engineering and Medicine were rife at the UK university stalls in The Hindu Education Plus Education Fair 2013 but some special courses had very good response. This summer, four U.K. universities exhibited their products in the Fair: University of Warwick; University of East Anglia; London Metropolitan University and Anglia Ruskin University.

While the creative writing course at University of East Anglia (UEA) is very famous, this year the university was also promoting strategic carbon management and environmental sciences. International development is another area the UEA prides itself on: “We have won the queen’s anniversary award twice for our school of International development. The maximum number of Indian students applying to UEA is for the school of International Development,” says Miriam Ebenezer who represented the university.

London Metropolitan, on the other hand was promoting their 18-month MBA in Executive Development. It is a new course which does not require work experience. Read more »

When the UK Border Agency last year tightened controls on international students coming into Britain it prompted an increase in the number of UK institutions looking to establish overseas. The restriction on overseas students coming to the UK, particularly from India, has had a major impact on university revenues. In response universities are taking the approach that if the students cannot come to them, they must go to the students.

In research carried out by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, 67% of surveyed universities said that Government policy on immigration and fees made them more likely to establish an overseas presence.

The internationalisation of higher education is not, of course, a new phenomenon – 80% of universities surveyed already have an international presence – but the pace of internationalisation is accelerating, driven in most cases by the change in Government policy. Read more »

U.K. landlords would be fined thousands of pounds if they fail to check the visa status of their tenants to ensure they’re legally in the country, under planned legislation as the government tries to win back voters.

Hurt by local-election losses last week at the hands of the anti-immigration and anti-European Union U.K. Independence Party, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today offered Parliament a package of measures unlikely to provoke discord from their own sides. The National Landlords Association said it welcomed the additional checks, which will affect thousands of property owners, and called for further action.

Local government “must undertake robust, intelligence-led, targeted enforcement,” NLA Chief Executive Officer Richard Lambert said in an e-mailed statement. “Otherwise illegal immigrants who are refused housing by reputable landlords will face homelessness or be pushed straight back into arms of the criminals who deliberately exploit vulnerable people.” Read more »

The British government announced a modest, austerity-sensitive program of legislation intended to tighten immigration controls, reform pensions and reduce red tape for business as Queen Elizabeth II laid out plans for the next year at the ceremonial state opening of Parliament Wednesday.

The Queen’s Speech _ a legislative agenda written by the government but read out by the monarch _ included measures intended to stimulate a national economy that has flat-lined since the global economic crisis hit five years ago.

The speech promised “an economy where people who work hard are properly rewarded,” with laws to “reduce the burden of excessive regulation on businesses” and enshrine consumer rights. Read more »

Britain’s coalition government put a crackdown on immigration at the heart of its legislative agenda on Wednesday in the hope of stopping an exodus of voters to a populist anti-immigration party before a national election in 2015.

In a pageantry-rich ceremony marking the annual opening of Britain’s parliament, Queen Elizabeth said a new immigration bill would “ensure that this country attracts people who will contribute and deters those who will not”.

Donning her crown, she was reading out the government’s plans days after the UK Independence Party (UKIP) made sweeping gains in local elections at the government’s expense, posing a threat to Prime Minister David Cameron’s re-election chances.

His Conservatives are the senior member of a two-party coalition, but hope to win outright in 2015 and govern alone. Read more »

The recent spate of attacks and killings of Indian students abroad have raised serious concerns among families of students aspiring to study abroad, as is evident from the queries of students and their families. With the demand for international education being highest in India, around 80,000 students seek admissions to institutions in the United States every year.

As students and families worry about safety of students living abroad, Prarthna Tiga and Pallavi Sengupta discover that US universities have stepped up security measures. This year, admission counsellors and Indian student associations are being bombarded with questions related to student safety measures taken by universities. Representatives of universities and student associations are in turn reassuring students, and their families that universities have indeed raised their vigil in a bid to make international students feel safe and secure in the US.

Read more »