The UK will remove overseas students from net immigration figures via new immigration bill

The UK will remove overseas students from net immigration figures via a new immigration bill even as Tories face defeat over the current bill in the Commons. Universities in the UK have cautioned that categorizing students as immigrants is harming the thriving higher education sector.

A new immigration bill will be tabled in the House of Commons. This will remove overseas students from net immigration figures. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has already appraised Theresa May regarding the enhancing support for this. Ms. Rudd has said that May will have to make a U-turn in UK Parliament now. This is going to be awkward for the Prime Minister as she has always insisted that students must be classified as immigrants.

Theresa May had claimed that annually around 100,000 overseas students do not return home upon completing graduation. However, this was proved to be far from reality as official exit checks revealed that lesser than 5000 overstay actually. The Prime Minister has been virtually isolated in the cabinet over this issue. The Ministers are increasingly opposing the policy for overseas students in the UK, as quoted by the Independent Co UK.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Boris Johnson the Foreign Secretary and Philip Hammond the Chancellor have all demanded to scrap the existing law. This is also the demand of the university and business leaders.

Open Britain and the Independent have launched a campaign ‘Drop the Target’. It is against the policy of decreasing annual net immigration to 10s of 1000s. This campaign also calls for excluding students from net figures. As of now, there are 438, 000 overseas students in the UK. Change of policy will drastically impact the headline migration figures.

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