Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in the UK under new rules
Migrants coming to the UK to work will need to learn English to an A-level standard under new rules set to be introduced.
Tougher requirements for speaking, listening, reading and writing will be needed for certain visas, as part of the Government’s Immigration White Paper measures announced in May.
The White Paper seeks to tighten controls and cut migration to the UK.
Those applying for skilled worker, scale-up visa routes, and graduates under the High Potential Individual (HPI) visa will need to reach B2 level, instead of the current B1 standard.
Applicants will have to pass the Secure English Language Test at a Home Office-approved provider in person, with their results to be checked as part of the visa process.
The changes were laid in Parliament on Tuesday, and are expected to come into force on dates following November 4.
“Unacceptable”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “This country has always welcomed those who come to this country and contribute.
“But it is unacceptable for migrants to come here without learning our language, unable to contribute to our national life.
“If you come to this country, you must learn our language and play your part.”
Other measures include cutting the time period international students can stay in the UK to find a graduate job after their course has ended from two years to 18 months, which will take effect from January 2027.
Students will also have to meet higher financial requirements to be allowed to come to the UK, raised to £1,171 per month outside London (from £1,136) for up to nine months.
The HPI route open to graduates from the top 100 international universities will also be expanded as part of Government efforts to attract highly skilled people to the country.
The Global Talent Route was also expanded to include more prestigious prizes and more changes to the visa for technology, arts and academia fields will also be made next year.
Those entering on the HPI visa is expected to double from 2,000 to 4,000, while there will be a cap of 8,000 applications each year.
Under further white paper plans, the immigration skills charge for UK employers to pay when sponsoring foreign workers on specific visas has also been increased to £480 per person per year for small organisations or charities, and to £1,320 for medium and large organisations.
This is raised from £364 and £1,000 respectively.
Changes
The White Paper is aimed at reducing numbers, clamping down on abuses of the system and ending a reliance on cheap foreign labour.
Home Office estimates indicate that changes from the plan could reduce the number of people coming to the UK by up to 100,000 per year, when looking at eight of its proposals including on study and work routes and a higher level of English language requirement.
Further English language requirements for other visa routes and family dependants are expected to be introduced in due course.
Meanwhile, the Home Office has also announced any nationals from Botswana will need a visa before travelling to the UK, including for short visits in response to a “high number” of people arriving as visitors since 2022 and then claiming asylum which is a “misuse of the UK’s immigration system”.
The move will come into force from 3pm on Tuesday.
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Will they also be required to lighten their skin tones as well. Cheap foreign labour? Are you having a laugh? No one here wants to do the stuff the people from abroad are doing. That’s why they need to be recruited. The jobs they are doing are well paid. They can only get those jobs because no one over here wants to do them.
No doubt Amir! ‘Brown people’ will have to stop being brown, and Celts will have to get rid of their freckles 😉
Unlikely because the majority voted in 2016 to replace European migration with non-European migration.
Anti-independence move by the back door if you ask me…
Labour, uber British nationalist, home secretary. Shabana Mahmood, herself of colonial comprador class descent, said: “THIS COUNTRY has always welcomed those who come to THIS COUNTRY and contribute. “But it is unacceptable for migrants to COME HERE without learning OUR LANGUAUGE, unable to contribute to OUR NATIONAL LIFE. “If you come to THIS COUNTRY, you must learn OUR LANGUAGE and play your part.” Over to you Eluned Morgan??
Exactly: ““But it is unacceptable for migrants to come here without learning our language, unable to contribute to our national life.
“If you come to this country, you must learn our language and play your part.” Does this UK government minister wish her words to apply in Wales? (Has she thought about Wales?)
Fat lot of use an A-level in English is going to be in Gwynedd.
As for having an A-level standard of English… as someone born in the UK, raised in the UK… I don’t have an A-level in English. I get on alright, but maybe I need to be deported…?
Tell those Saeson that they will need A -level standard Cymraeg if they wish to settle or acquire a second home in Wales. To show them we are a sensitive and tolerant crowd we’ll give them 3 years to get up to scratch otherwise they’ll have to go back whence they came. 5 years if they are moving into the parts of Wales not within Arfor – Sir Gar and everything that’s on the West coast- and round to beyond the Conwy estuary.
Yes, indeed. And, indeed, we do have “many” people here in Wales who have come here from Elsewhere (OK, that “E” started to be England, but from other places too), and are now fluent in Welsh, and valued and intelligent contributors to our communities and our way of life. So it can be done. (Heck: of course it can! – the myriad citizens here from outside the UK who now have fluent _English_ – at this “B2” level and higher – daily fluency – are daily evidence for this. Let’s just think how we can help them all to acquire… Read more »
Your sensitivity and tolerance are breathtaking
To be detailed: these language levels are the “Common European Framework Reference for Languages”, CEFR. (For detail see The CEFR Levels – Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) ) This is a useful framework and measurement. and is looking at fluency in language. (How well can this speaker explain a complicated or detailed situation, in the language in question?) For many of us “home-grown” folks, the title here, “A-level”, might, less helpfully, make us think of familiarity with “set books” and literature in that language, which isn’t the case. [But, here in Wales, the “sauce for the goose”… Read more »
Yet again no recognition that there are up to a million native Welsh speakers on these islands – Gaelic, Irish, speakers too. Welsh of late is now actually an officially recognized language in the UK. But it cleary still doesn’t matter that much that these groups of peoples don’t get end of life care in their mother tonguge. Also by implication here, Welsh speaking immigrants from Patagonia will not cut it, only ‘English’ it seems will suffice.Very many first language Welsh speakers over the centuries have never achieved A-level standard fluency in English.Quite likely many still have not. What does… Read more »
So will all British workers need to have A level standard English as well?
Most of them are struggling to assemble a coherent sentence !
Careful, Home Secretary.
Your fear of the Farage Fan Club is is showing.
Fear? I think she’s signed up
Wow! Migrants educated to A level English language standard would surely have to be promoted over white British born colleagues in a workplace who are not. Imagine what the ‘Great Replacement’ theorists would make of that. Just check for parity in basic written and conversational skills maybe.
How about reinstating the Resident Labour Market Test that Johnson ripped up. There are global consultancies importing cheaper skilled workers without even bothering to check if anyone locally can do the job.
Does that mean we’ll deport many UK born and bred families who’s English falls below GCSE standard?
They will be required to quote Duckworth Lewis Stern as well.
How many of the flag botherers trying to burn hotels can manage simple English yet will contribute far less.
I was lost on this reference! – I had to look it up: Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method – Wikipedia. It’s a “detailed” set of rules for working out who’s won a cricket match. (Of course, only “detailed” if you’re not a cricket fan… the soccer equivalent might be “being able to quote the Offside Rule in full…”) And what “Jeff” means here, I think, is a requirement for knowledge of a particular sub-culture of UK society. (I mean no disrespect to cricket fans – I just wouldn’t pass…)
Labour, uber British nationalist, home secretary. Shabana Mahmood, herself of colonial comprador class descent, said: “THIS COUNTRY has always welcomed those who come to THIS COUNTRY and contribute. “But it is unacceptable for migrants to COME HERE without learning OUR LANGUAUGE, unable to contribute to OUR NATIONAL LIFE. “If you come to THIS COUNTRY, you must learn OUR LANGUAGE and play your part.” Over to you Eluned Morgan?? 😉
This is being done to appease the hotel protesters.
How many stereotypical Tommeh whatever his actual name is supporters have an A level of any description!
Stephen :p
So the migrants will be able to teach the English how to speak correctly.
British nationalist Labour says – ‘English is our language’. But for some of us it’s not is it?Shame we went along with dropping the original name of our language, thus allowing ‘British’ to be fully appropriated to mean something else. If I had my way I’d change it back tomorrow. The political space created, enabling assimiliationist narratives to be subverted, would be considerable. Not so long ago the Welsh language was still called ‘British’. Think if it was reclaimed as ‘British’ today? It would engender no end of interesting dynamics. At the very least it would serve as a reminder… Read more »
Why do they need to know a work of Shakespeare and other works of prose and poetry?
In the meantime we have English people refusing to learn Welsh of any standard when they migrate.
On the plus side, an A level is far more than most farage supporters will ever achieve, so any “immigrants” will be offered jobs before the extreme right.
This will keep them on the lower choices end of career life and make workplaces much nicer.