Last week I was pleased to welcome the recently appointed Immigration Minister, Mark Harper MP, to Gatwick Airport for a tour of the new UK Border Force operation based there and to meet staff. It is an impressive set up and the newly created focus of dedicated Border Force officers one that will help protect the country from illegal immigration.
The Government have introduced an immigration cap for the first time ever and whilst speaking in a House of Commons debate the week before last I welcomed the first fall in net migration into the UK in many years. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that estimated net migration in the UK fell to 216,000 in the year to December 2011, from 252,000 in the year to December 2010, as a raft of recent reforms to the immigration system start to take effect.
For the year to June 2012 the number of student visas issued has decreased by 30% compared to the year before.
One of the core concerns that local residents raise with me is that of immigration. I know that people were deeply frustrated about the chaos which was the hallmark of our immigration system for too long. For years, under Labour, immigration was uncontrolled. Net migration to Great Britain reached about three million people – approximately three times the population of Birmingham. The system was broken and nothing was being done to fix it.
We now have a Government which is doing what is needed to bring immigration under control. All the routes of entry into the UK are being tightened up. Economic migration has been capped, bogus students are being turned away, and the rules on family migration are being made more robust.
We are now seeing the impact of this across the country and here in Crawley. Immigration is still too high but we now have a Government which is determined to bring it down to sustainable levels in the tens of thousands.
For too long the mainstream political establishment in this country has been unwilling to talk about, or tackle, the issue of mass migration occurring over less than a decade and that has impacted significantly on society and put pressure on housing, hospitals and classrooms. The result of this is that traditionally moderate and tolerant people have often been tempted to support extreme parties.
By addressing the issue of immigration and introducing a managed and balanced system we can be fairer to all.