Struggling to fulfill its promise to reduce immigration after Brexit, the British government announced Tuesday its intention to drastically restrict family reunification for foreign students.

The United Kingdom has already recorded a record net immigration of half a million people between June 2021 and June 2022 and new figures expected this week should confirm the trend, embarrassing for the conservative executive led by Rishi Sunak. The subject is all the more delicate as the very right-wing Minister of the Interior Suella Braverman is currently weakened by her management of speeding.

Restrictions to reduce "significantly net migration"

While Britain's prestigious universities attract many foreigners, the new restrictions on student visas "will significantly reduce net migration by limiting the possibility for international students to bring family members," the government said in a statement.

These measures, which will come into force in January, affect all students "with the exception of postgraduate researchers". In addition, foreign students will no longer be able to switch from student visa to work visa until they have completed their studies.

The government promises to take action against "unscrupulous agents" who use student visas as a migration route.

A "fair balance"

In 2022, about 136,000 visas were issued to dependents of foreign students, up from 16,000 in 2019, according to government figures.

"We have seen an unprecedented increase in the number of dependents of students arriving in the country on visas," Braverman said in the statement.

The minister considered that the new measures represented a "fair balance" and would allow "in the medium term" to return net migration to pre-Covid levels.

'They are treated with contempt'

Reactions have been strong on the side of universities, which fear losing with foreigners who pay exorbitant tuition fees a vital source of income and part of their attractiveness on the world stage.

The Russell Group, which represents the most prestigious institutions such as Oxford or Cambridge, has expressed concern about measures that will affect efforts to "diversify international recruitment".

"Those who choose to study in the UK, wherever they come from, bring tremendous value to our society and deserve to live alongside their loved ones while studying," said Jo Grady, general secretary of the UCU higher education union. "Instead, they are treated with contempt."



"Stop the boats"

The issue of immigration control dominated debates during the 2016 campaign that resulted in the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union. But the Conservative government has since failed to reduce legal and illegal immigration, despite promises to regain control of borders.

In 2022, more than 45,000 migrants, a record, crossed the Channel illegally. "Stop the boats" is one of Rishi Sunak's five priorities.

The government wants to send illegally arrived asylum seekers to third countries like Rwanda. But this project, attacked in court, is at a standstill.

Arm shortages

At the same time, the United Kingdom has, since Brexit, been facing a shortage of labour, particularly in agriculture and health, creating regular tensions within the majority. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently acknowledged that he would have to grant tens of thousands of seasonal visas for agriculture, appearing to go against his interior minister.

The latter intervened at an ultra-conservative conference to declare that she sees "no good reason why the United Kingdom cannot train its own truck drivers and fruit pickers to reduce immigration".

In this context of political tensions, Suella Braverman has been under attack since the revelation in the press this weekend that she had asked officials to help her obtain preferential treatment after speeding last summer, in the form of a special awareness course. His request was refused, but Sunak said he was consulting his ethics adviser Laurie Magnus to decide on possible follow-up to what the opposition denounces as a violation of the ministerial code.

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