Students will only be allowed to bring family members to the UK if they are on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes, according to proposals aimed at clamping down on migration State Secretary Suella Braverman presented on Tuesday.
Braverman shared various proposals in her statement on Tuesday, which included stricter measures for students from overseas who bring family members to live with them.
Immigration statistics “highlighted an unexpected rise in the number of dependants coming to the UK alongside international students,” Braverman wrote. According to her, around 136,000 visas were given to family members of sponsored students in 2022. “A more than eight-fold increase from 16,000 in 2019,” she added.
Some of the other measures she discussed included removing maintenance requirements for students and dependants, improving enforcement activity, and removing the ability for students to “switch out of the student route into work routes before their studies have been completed.”
According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, there were 679,970 international students in the UK in 2021-2022. Of those students, 120,140 came from the EU.
“We are deeply disappointed to see this policy take effect to end the right to bring dependants for those on postgraduate taught courses,” said Anne Marie Graham, chief executive at the UK Council for International Student Affairs.
“The decision comes at a time when the UK is a leading destination for students from around the world and restating its commitment to welcome international students to the UK,” she added.
The changes will come into effect for students coming to the UK in January 2024, which will make a “significant difference to the numbers” by helping to bring migration down, said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the BBC reported. (Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)
Read more with EURACTIV
Austria, Denmark to cooperate more on migration
Source: euractiv.com
