Former Lancastrian

Wow Im betting this new UK rule about to take effect in April 2016 might cause a few problems.
Migrants who have spent more than five years working in the country will be required to earn £35,000 per year or else face deportation, according to a policy that comes into effect in April next year. The policy, announced in 2012 by British Home Secretary Theresa May, has been criticised this week by the Royal College of Nursing. They predicted chaos in the health service, and urged the Home Office to add nursing to the list of occupations exempt from the rules and reconsider the salary threshold.

So if Canada introduced this same rule it would mean earning a salary of over $68,000 based on the current exchange rate.
Im sure there is more to this story and I'm assuming that those who are granted PR status within this timeframe would be exempt. Seems like the UK want to cut down on their foreign workers not part of the EU.
New migrant rules will cost NHS thousands of nurses, says union - UK Politics - UK - The Independent

plasticcanuck

So, and I don't know, do migrants include those from EU countries? If so who is going to do all the menial jobs paying well less than £35k/annum?

AlliF

No, they are referring to migrants as those people from outwith the EU.

From the article;
"Up to 3,365 nurses currently working in Britain are likely to be affected by a policy which says migrants from outside Europe must earn £35,000 or more"

Ben W Bell

35K is quite a high salary. I think I understand the intent, but the number should have been set a lot lower, like maybe 15K.

Oink

So they're getting ready to swap low earning immigrants from Africa and Asia with low earning immigrants from south-east Europe.

Tirytory

The trust I worked in employed a huge amount of non EU migrant nurses who would never meet the minimum threshold. Most "on the floor nurses" will go through their whole career being stuck on a payband they can never move from without promotion to "dead men's shoes" jobs...

At best a nurse after 6 yrs might be on £26,822 k without promotion...

scrubbedexpat091

Seem's Britain no longer wants immigrants, if Canada did this 68,000 quoted above would not be possible for most considering the average income in parts of the country are not even that high to begin with.

Former Lancastrian

Canada elects to do this a different way and we don't mention deportation
In general terms a foreign worker can only stay for 4 years maximum though there are the odd exemptions under NAFTA. Once the 4 years has been done then they can't reapply for 4 years now referred to as the 4 in 4 out.
Those who come on the IEC working holiday will now only get a 2 year work permit.
There are also seasonal workers who only come for 6 months maximum and previously had no quotas as to how many times they could do this. I know of one Guatemalan who has been doing this for the last 15 years.
With CIC clamping down on foreign workers it will be interesting to see how this plays out in future years.
Ideally for the skilled workers in NOC skill level jobs 0, A or B they are saying apply for PR status via the various streams.
To those in skill level C & D jobs you just might be able to apply for PR status but you won't have as many routes.
Failing the above you can always shack up with a Canadian and apply under common law or marriage and get sponsored that way

Yorkiechef

A friend of mine is a nurse, £26k basic, 30 or 50% enhancement for nights or weekends, does some bank work for better than average money, makes over 40k a year. It is possible to get to £35k+ without bank work just doing evenings and weekends and recognises that the workload is generally easier than working days. Fancy......

BritInParis

If it's only going to kick in after six years of working in the UK I don't see how it's going to affect anyone who is even moderately on the ball with the immigration rules since they can apply for ILR after five years and then citizenship after one more year or straightaway if they're married to a British citizen.

Tirytory

While it is a fair point, there are only so many shifts of those to go round and generally suit some more than others. So there is still a bulk of nurses not able to achieve over £35k. I'm not going to argue the toss about whether nights and overtime would get you up to 35k- personally I think it's questionable but whatever and think it's the double time agency works that whacks it up. Also with 37.5 hour job (unpaid overtime) and bank work on top it's not much of a life- I know I worked it for long enough. Still if immigration are looking at basic pay wage which I guess is the RCN's point then it's not there. After all anyone can say they do overtime in whatever job they do.

Steve_

Yeah, it's just more political window dressing. Also found it interesting that the amount you have to earn is where the 40% tax bracket starts.

BritInParis

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a(nother) big price hike for ILR and citizenship applications next April.

Piff Poff

So if a immigrant has to earn such a high figure to sustain life, why is the minimum wage so low?

MarkG

Because there are plenty of people capable of minimum wage jobs, so you don't need to bring in more immigrants to do them. Don't know about you, but I came here as a 'Skilled Worker', not a burger-flipper.