An Assessment On British Immigration Policies Under The Brown And Coalition Governments

With the acceleration of globalization, countries throughout the world find themselves inextricably linked and intertwined with each other, an irreversible trend which prompts them to be more open to the world. The immigration issue is inevitably brought to the forefront and has been increasingly salient for many countries. This dissertation attempts to expound the UK immigration policies under the Brown government and Coalition government and explore the continuity and change of their policies.This paper firstly elaborates on the immigration policies under Gordon Brown and finds that the Brown government has basically followed Blair’s immigration policies, in particular the economic migration, but after the2008financial crisis, it began to tighten its attitude and policy on immigration. Under him, a range of restrictive measures were laid down amidst the surging complaints of jobs taken by immigrants among the general public and increasing calls for a cap on immigration. The Brown government tightened the immigration system by strengthening border control and limiting the entry of non-EU immigrant workers and international students through the five-tier Points-Based System (PBS). Brown’s another focus was on promoting integration and citizenship to enhance "Britishness" and alleviate social frictions associated with immigration. Brown’s altered attitude and policy towards immigration resulted in extensive criticism and even opposition, failing to satisfy the increasing call for migration restriction from the public on the one hand and alienating some Labor politicians supportive of immigration on the other hand.It then proceeds to examine the immigration policies taken by the Coalition government which turned out to take an even tougher stance towards immigration. Faced with mounting immigration resulting from the expansionary immigration policies promoted by New Labor governments and the prevalent anti-immigration sentiment, the Coalition promised to cut met migration to "tens of thousands" during the life of Parliament. Unlike the New Labor governments that radically revamped the immigration system through primary legislation, the Coalition merely made changes to the established immigration rules, reducing non-EU immigration by placing an annual cap on the number of people qualified to enter the UK through the PBS routes. These measures included reducing labor migration, student migration, family migration, asylum and illegal migration and discouraging EU migration. The implementation of its immigration policies, however, was problematic in many ways and drew enormous criticism from the British society. Also, it is worth noting that due to economic and political factors, the immigration policies under the Coalition government show more continuity than change compared with those under the Brown government. In terms of change, the Coalition restricted immigration further by setting an overall numerical target as well as specific limitation on those allowed to migrate to the UK. With regard to continuity, the Coalition government limited the entry of non-EU immigrants under the PBS established by its predecessor, enacted only one primary legislation dealing with immigration and made concessions on this issue in many aspects.