The home secretary, Theresa May, will tell MPs on Wednesday that she is breaking the link between migration and settlement for the first time, by taking away the right to remain in Britain for more than five years from any migrant worker earning less than £35,000 a year.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus 1883
Well, of course there was plenty of room in north America in the late nineteenth century, or at least the newcomers thought there was. And the author's name was Lazarus. Yet £35,000 is an adequate income in most parts of the UK even today, though some may think it risible. Indeed it has to be, since in 2011 average individual earnings in the UK were £26,000 and average household income £33,000.
Ministers hope changing settlement rights for skilled workers will put plans back on track to cut net migration from its current 250,000 a year to "tens of thousands" by the next general election. They believe the £35,000-a-year earnings threshold will ensure only the "brightest and the best" migrants settle in the UK. But critics say it will simply mean only the wealthy and the comfortable are able to come and live and work in Britain permanently.
It would seem we no longer have jobs that the native born British disdain to take - or else government ministers are happy to pay high rates to their foreign builders.
