Brexit: Could a points based immigration system work in the UK? - BBC Newsnight

Boris Johnson has brought forward plans to overhaul the country's migration system - with ‘an Australian-style points based system’ coming in from January 2021.

A points based system would assign points to those who want to work in the UK, on the basis of a number of professional and personal characteristics. This would range from education levels to salary.

Under the current model of freedom of movement, EU citizens do not need a visa to work in the UK. Immigrants from outside of the EU, however, are subject to a points system based on English language skills, being sponsored by a company and meeting a salary threshold.

Prime Minister Johnson has stated that the UK’s post immigration system will put “people before passports”. Speaking at the recent UK-Africa Investment Summit, the PM said immigration would become “fairer... treating people the same wherever they come from”

So how successful will such a system be in the UK? Newsnight’s Policy Editor Lewis Goodall investigates.

Newsnight is the BBC's flagship news and current affairs TV programme - with analysis, debate, exclusives, and robust interviews.

[gabbegubbe]

it is not everything about big businesses ....it is about quality of life for ordinary citizens 😈

[mikelonb]

I really hope that all EU members apply the same rules towards UK citizens who are living outside UK.
At this point it seems that people from UK are willing to have the best of both worlds, I mean, applying points based immigration on those who are trying to get into UK and at the same time being able to move around (and immigrate as well) like they never left EU!!!
Who you think you are? Come down to earth, cause I know people from UK who lives abroad for more than 10 years and they don't say a fucking word on language of the country they are living in.
In the end it is easy to solve the problem, you (UK) send our citizens back and we send back yours.. done.

[martina]

Well, I hope British people living in other EU countries will receive the same treatment

[andrewcliffe]

We know what the BBC wants.
We know how unbiased they are

[earloftyrone]

If previous Governments weren’t so anti-family leaving it impossible for most to have larger families. And when companies want mass migration working class people should be worried.

[SirAmicVarze]

The irony is that Australia has more than DOUBLE the net migration rate of the UK, and yet all the people who want to cut immigration obsess over their system.

[anthonybardsley]

Make britain an oyster for our own young. Give more opportunity to them more jobs and training for them.

[leonardliverpool]

Please bring back 10 Benson and Hedges gold

[christoffer]

Can she stop interrupting the guy she’s interviewing?

[mauriciod]

I think you didn't get the message, the people want less immigration, they don't want to become a minority in their own country.

[footsoldier]

Regulate European migration? That is a fraction of the issue. Migration from the rest of the world is a much greater concern.

[beachboy]

British workers need good jobs urgently

[marycull]

We need to train our own people first.

[mike.B.]

Patel's parents came to UK on a points immigration system?

[ianallen]

Why doesnt he do it like every other country. You cant come here to live unless you have a job and have the funds to live. Easy, no benefits for anyone not born here. No unemployment benefit, no child benefit, no housing benefits or even council houses. The country is too soft to say no to immigrants and assylum seekers but other countries are not too soft to say it.

UK gives handouts and benefits to anyone who comes in the country but its own people .If you are a foreigner, you are told what you can claim for and given extra benefits. People born here and have paid into the system are not told what they can claim and are refused what they are allowed.

[ChickenWire]

I voted leave not because I wanted to stop migration but because I wanted fair migration. That means an EU citizen has the same rights to work in the UK as someone from the rest of the world.

[fdp]

I don't know why anyone thinks having skilled migration is good. It means they intend to save money on training our own people, import skilled labour and our kids will have no prospects. They will be left with all the unskilled jobs. The people want immigration cutting full stop.

[brianrodney]

We should be training our own people. It is downright unfair and amoral to poach skilled workers from poorer countries, as it deprives those countries of the skills needed to develop.

[lb]

The immigration system should be immediately send 5 million people out and let none more in

[eyeswideopen]

We need to shut our borders and sort the shit out that we've got here and our homeless 🇬🇧👊🏻