Date published: 2008/02/20
The BBC says:
Immigrants who want to become British and settle permanently in the UK will need to pass more tests to "prove their worth" to the country under new plans.
Some migrants may also have to pay into a fund towards public services and have a period of "probationary citizenship".
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the UK should expect a "demonstration of commitment" and the process of becoming a citizen should be "more exacting".
...
Unveiling the proposals, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said future migrants would need to "earn" citizenship. This scraps the current system which allows people to apply for naturalisation on the basis of how long they have lived in the UK.Ms Smith said migrants from outside the European Economic Area would be encouraged to "move on" through a system that leads to citizenship - or choose ultimately to leave the country.
The package of measures includes:
- Raising visa fees for a special "transitional impact" fund
- More English language testing ahead of nationality
- Requirements to prove integration into communities
- Increasing how long it takes to become British
...
Press reports suggest the transitional impact fund would raise £15m a year.
Unbelievable how pathetic these proposals are. What the British government is saying is that anyone wanting to immigrate to Britain from outside Europe should get lost. Well, talented people will just tell Britain to get lost. And Britain will be the main loser, as any backwards country is when it shuts its borders to the outside world. And of course this proposal will have no impact on immigration from Europe, which is what the xenophobic press has been mostly agitating about recently. So this policy, driven entirely by a need to appease the xenophobic press, will not even achieve its political goal.
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