Tolerance And Exclusion

Historically Britain has been a country of emigration not immigration, founding the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. However, in recent years the UK has been beset by a series of problems, such as the ageing population, declining birth rate and a shortage of highly skilled labor. Highly skilled labor is in great need in the United Kingdom. British immigration policy has greatly changed since 1997, when the incoming Labor Government began to make a decisive break with previous policies and attitudes towards immigration. Large-scale immigration is now officially acknowledged to be essential for the UK's economic well-being and beneficial to its society. In the past ten years the number of net immigration (i.e. immigration minus emigration) into the UK is about 3 million. Drawing on recent archive material, this thesis explores what the changes to British immigration policy since 1997 mean in practice.The thesis first makes a preliminary evaluation of contemporary theories of international migration: neo-classical economic equilibrium theory, historical-structuralist theory, segmented labor market theory (the dual labor market theory) and migration system theory and gives a general introduction to the factors that has made the UK become one of the major countries of immigration since the 20th century. Then the thesis gives a brief overview of the history of immigration into the UK and makes an analysis of the evolution of British immigration policy between post-World War II and 1997. In this period British immigration policy was first tolerant towards the immigrants, then characterized by the Government's hesitation about tolerance or exclusion of the immigrants, and ended up in exclusion. Racism was firmly entrenched in the immigration laws.With the development of global economy and politics as well as the domestic situation in the UK, the Labor Government since it came in power in May 1997 has then implemented, mainly in terms of the transfer of labor force, a number of immigration laws that have relaxed the previous ban on immigration, thereby resulting in a significant increase in the influx of immigrants. With the further expansion of the European Union, the massive flow of immigration into the UK has, however, had put great pressure on public services, which has given serious cause for concern at all levels in the UK. The Labor Government, under increasing pressure, has accordingly begun to take some restrictive immigration laws, e.g. a new five-tiered points-based migration system. The criteria of the new points-based migration system are based on the professionalism and skills of the applicant as well as the demands of the UK labor market. The entrepreneurs, scientists and other highly skilled immigrants will be given priority. Skilled workers, like engineers, nurses and teachers are classified into the second tier. The new immigration policy has had great impacts on the UK economy, positive or negative. On one hand, it has contributed to the growth of GDP and supplied the UK labor market with cheap labor. On the other hand, it has put increasing pressure in employment on the native British, especially the native unskilled workers. Chapter Two and Chapter Three lay great emphasis on the above-mentioned changes to British immigration policy since 1997 and its economic effects on the UK.Chapter Four focuses on the Labor Government's policy on EU immigration, in particular, Eastern European immigration into the UK—from"open-door policy"to the gradual controls on immigration, to further illustrate the essence of British immigration policy since 1997—the interaction between tolerance and exclusion. Finally the thesis arrives at a conclusion that what the current British immigration policy means in practice is in part the utilization of immigration to search for high-quality human capital. In order to manage migration more effectively and attract highly skilled immigrants indispensable to the development of the UK economy, the British Government will still enforce restrictive immigration laws.