Controls to restrict how Bulgarian and Romanian nationals gain access to the UK labour sector will be lengthened until the end of 2013, Immigration Minister Damian Green announced today.
What this means is Romanian and Bulgarian EEA nationals looking to work in the UK will continue to require approval from the UK Border Agency before they can work in the UK.
The minister said:
‘Maintaining these controls will make sure migration benefits the UK and does not adversely impact on our labour market. The government is radically reforming the immigration system, and has already announced an annual limit on work visas and tough new rules for students to ensure net migration is reduced from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands.
‘The Migration Advisory Committee has made a clear case for extending the existing restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians. This government has also made clear that we will always introduce transitional controls on all new EU member states as a matter of course.’
The decision facilitates the government’s pledge to bring down employers’ reliance on migrant workers, particularly for lesser skilled jobs. This will help the jobless to find into importance back into work and help the domestic labor force to acquire the knowledge the economy needs.
A written report from the separate Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) looked at the effect on the national labour market today if the transitional adjustments were taken away. It found that lifting the current restrictions could cause more EU2 nationals to showed up at the UK to work, especially in lower skilled fields in which there is certainly increased risk of displacement of resident workers along with a negative impact on earnings.
Romanian and Bulgarian Nationals Can now work freely in the UK
Permission to work are going to normally be provided only where the worker has a specific career offer and the work is in skilled occupation in which the workplace has been unable to locate a suitably qualified citizen worker. There are also quota-based preparations for lower skilled careers in the agricultural and food handling sectors which will remain at the identical level for 2012 and 2013.
The addition of the limitations does not affect the place of those who have already been allowed to take employment in the united kingdom.
The Migration Advisory Committee’s report into EU2 (Bulgarian and Romanian) nationals was launched on 4 November 2011 and can be found under the ‘see also’ section on the right side of this page.
