Hostility to immigrants is rising all over Europe, but opinion polls
suggest it is worse in Britain than in any other rich country. David
Cameron’s government came to power promising to cut net migration to
“tens of thousands” by the next election. This was not only wrong, in
terms of both Britain’s obligations and its economic needs, but also
impractical, since last year the number was 216,000. Since many
immigrants are entitled to entry—because, for instance, they come from
the EU—turning away students, who account for about 40% of the total, is
pretty much the only way of cutting numbers significantly. So Mr
Cameron has had to curtail the right to work after graduation—especially
tough for students from poor countries, who need to work to repay the
median annual cost of courses of £11,200 ($17,800). And universities
have been required to keep an ever-closer watch on foreign students to
ensure that they are in Britain to study, not to work. That is the
policy of which London Metropolitan (LMU) fell foul.
The many benefits of teaching foreigners What will happen to LMU is unclear, since it is taking the government to court. It blames its problems in part on the rules requiring universities to monitor students which, it says, have changed 14 times in the past three years. A report by a parliamentary committee, published this week but written before the revocation of LMU’s licence, describes the system as “poorly planned and ill thought out”. What will happen to LMU’s bona fide foreign students is equally uncertain. The government is helping them find places at other universities, but there is no guarantee they will get them, nor is any system in place to compensate them. They have been cruelly treated.
It is right for the government to keep a watch on colleges and
universities to ensure that they are not being used as conduits for
workers pretending to be students. When aspiring migrants outnumber
society’s ability to absorb them, immigration should be restricted. But
the desire for social stability needs to be balanced against other
goods, such as prosperity.
In the wake of the economic crisis, the government is keen to foster
industries other than financial services with export potential. Higher
education is one. A government report estimates earnings from foreign
students at around £7 billion a year, and suggests that could double by
2025. And there are far broader potential gains. Foreigners who
study in Britain are likelier to create wealth in the country later on.
Education is the most effective way of wielding the “soft power” that is
voguish in foreign-policy circles—bringing people round to your point
of view without training your guns on them, in other words. All that is
jeopardised by using universities as an arm of the UK Border Agency. The
job of universities is to teach students, not to police the country’s
frontiers.
If Mr Cameron insists on capping migrant numbers, he should exempt
students, who contribute not just to the country’s coffers but also to
its intellectual wealth, and who stay for a limited time. Better still,
adopt a more liberal approach, and remember how Britain first became
great: through openness to the world, not through xenophobia and
isolationism.
From:http://infognomonpolitics.blogspot.gr
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