Policy: The Welfare State National Security and Terrorism

Policy Challenge
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Policy Challenge
Introduction
The size and characteristics of immigration in United Kingdom have changed significantly. They are more mobile, diverse and numerous than before. Their experience is consequently different. The UK immigration policy has undergone radical changes. The forces exerted to the policy makers made them look at the illegality involved during immigration process. Immigration into United Kingdom is roughly estimated to be 150,000 net immigrants per yearCITATION Ver01 \l 1033 (Vertovec, 2001). The newest set of immigration data shows that net migration to the UK for the year ending September 2015 had reached approximately 323,000 hovering just the historical peak 336,000 that occurred in the previous year 2014.The estimated percentage drop is therefore 4% below this spike. The net migration has risen by 12% since 2005 .The number of immigrants are drastically increasing year in year outCITATION Ger08 \l 1033 (German & Fund, 2008). This paper shall focus on the immigration policies adopted by the UK and their effectiveness in regulation of immigration. The challenges that the government faces in implementing immigration policies shall be focused on and possible solutions suggested.
Policy Regulations
In 2010, the new UK government introduced an annual cap on the number of non-EU migrants entering the UK; with a limit on net migration of 100,000 per annum. These restrictions come in light of increasing public concern towards migration. In 2012, the UK government reaffirmed its intention to restrict immigration, arguing that migrants adversely affect social cohesion, create pressure on infrastructure, public services, jobs and wages. These examples illustrate how, over the years, the UK government has adopted a more strict position towards immigration in both policy making and rhetoricCITATION licch \l 1033 (Codes, 2008).
Net migration into the UK is a phenomenon of globalization. Globally, numbers of migrants have increased as a proportion of the population, and the UK is not therefore the only country to have experienced the increase CITATION Mar33 \l 1033 (Williams & Law, 2012). United Kingdom has passed various laws to regulate immigration process. The citizens and the settled residents must now earn at least $18,600 if they want to bring their spouse to the UK.The policy has prevented many number of visa applications made by many families that earn below the set standard. Report by the government indicated that 4,000 applications were affected CITATION Dus14 \l 1033 (Dustmann & Frattini, 2014).
Students work rights have been reduced and more scrutiny introduced over colleges sponsoring international students. The government promised its program ‘abuse of the immigration system’ via students’ routes where migrants were suspected of coming to work rather than coming to study. This implies that they come to UK to work contrary to what the records indicate. New measures reduced permitted working hours and raised language requirements for students at further education colleges. Government revoked licenses of over 800 colleges who fail to meet the lawCITATION Wil09 \l 1033 (Somerville, Sriskandarajah, & Latorre, 2009).
All providers sponsoring students to come to UK were required to apply for highly trusted sponsors’ status. Providers must meet criteria that include high rate of students completing courses. Eligibility criteria for work visas have become more selective but overall numbers remain similar in 2010 levels. The conservative party to reduce net migration from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands has reflected in admitting students, family members and workersCITATION Cam98 \l 1033 (Camarota, 1998).
Challenges
The challenge is to do with the trust of the public. Citizens of United Kingdom do not easily trust foreigners. They do not interact with them since they see them as strangers who might have ill motives. The situation has created poor relations between the immigrants and the citizens of the countryCITATION MAC10 \l 1033 (McCarthy, 2008).
At any level of educational attainment, employment rates for UK-born and immigrant men are similar on average; but immigrant women are far less likely to be in employment than UK-born women, at any given level of educational attainment. For both male and female immigrants, however, employment falls faster in a downturn and rises faster in an upturn than is the case for the native-born population. Not only do educational attainments differ between immigrants and the native-born, so does the pattern of employment in different occupations. For UK-born men the most common occupations are managerial jobs, heavy goods driving and skilled trades; for foreign-born men the most common occupations are chefs, software professionals, medical practitioners and other professionals. Among women, the most common immigrant occupations are nursing and care assistants CITATION Bra14 \l 1033 (Bratsberg, Raaum, & Roed, 2014).
Governments are running large deficits. Poor governance that is contributing to a large extent illegal immigration process. Immigrants would contribute revenue as well as receive some benefits if appropriate legal formalities are followed. Some people who are in a country illegally Such as in the UK, the USA or Germany, will reason that if they became legal immigrants by paying the entry fee they would have much better opportunities than illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants can work but they are limited in the type of jobs they can have; they are in the underground economy pretty much entirely. Studies indicate that the underground economy generally has low-skilled, lower-paying jobs, because a firm using many skilled workers really cannot function effectively being underground .This is why many illegal Immigrants may well convert themselves to legal status by paying the fees CITATION Ott121 \l 1033 (Ottaviano &...