Since post last week on migration Holyrood vs Westminster, found link on the BBC website to the the BBC News ‘Reality Check’ on immigration that showed net outflow of non-EU. That is migration is out of the country not in! Also Mark Easton’s blog @ the BBC, which gives more info. Bottom line is that the outflow is even greater then the figure of 8000 given on BBC News.
That makes me feel better about the Lib Dems agreeing to a cap on non-EU immigration – assuming they look at net figures!
my guess it will apply to inflow, not net migration, so would lead to significant drop in numbers of non-EU residents in the country.
I’m not clear whether this cap applied across the board to all categories – for example, what about student visa’s. Also imagining what is going to happen the first time a City bank or insurance company wants to bring over a US employee and is blocked as the numbers have gone over the cap … maybe they will supplement Brown’s points system with country colour coding?