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Sounds like they took a lot of inspiration from Japan, where they have a "Highly Skilled Professionals" visa track with points for similar things, with the limi

Sounds like they took a lot of inspiration from Japan, where they have a "Highly Skilled Professionals" visa track with points for similar things, with the limit also being 70. For Japan, you still need to fulfill the requirements for e.g. normal work visa, but you get perks like preferential handling, shorter timed to permanent residency and getting visa for dependents. On another note, this is going to suck for "low-skilled" brits who want to move around the EU as I assume EU put some symmetry to this.

jariel 7y ago
There is really no news here. Every nation has some kind of immigration policy and the vast majority of nations don't provide many visas for low-skilled workers. The example for the UK is Australia/Canada points system for regular migration, which is exactly what the US (or anyone else) would do were there some kind of meaningful reform to its system. Canada does provide quite a number of temp-worker spots, but it's in a different scenario than the UK, i.e. no need for swaths of workers in remote areas like the Oil-Sands. That there are no special status for EU citizens I think is fundamentally part of the negotiating position, and within a couple of years, my bet is that EU citizens get 'more points' than others for whatever kind of work and visa-versa. That the headline leads as 'No Visas for Low-Skilled Workers' I think is unfair as it's not representative of the reform, which on the whole is as to be expected.
- threeseed 7y ago
  Actually Australia has a low skilled worker visa. It is called the 457 and it was abused so badly that it was abolished but still sort of remains. But during that time the government absolutely knew the extent of low skilled workers flooding into the country. All the parties loved it especially since Australia needed cheap labour to work at the 7/11 or drive Uber cars. We also abuse the living daylights out of backpackers who are forced to work in low skilled jobs e.g. picking fruits in order to qualify for a second round of the Working Holiday visa.
- theflyinghorse 7y ago
  > oil sands. The days of Oil Sands being an employment powerhouse are over. In fact there isn't much labour demand anywhere in Western Canada at the moment.
claudiawerner 7y ago
Many entry-tier English teaching (ALT or Eikaiwa) companies in Japan only require a native-level proficiency and Bachelor's degree from a recognized institution in order to hire you and get the visa sponsorship set up. Does that qualify as a "skilled professional" visa? Also to my knowledge, it's possible to gain citizenship in Japan after only five years of constant time in the country, so long as you're legally there, you can pass a basic Japanese language test (or write an essay), and show evidence that you can support yourself financially.
- csa 7y ago
  > Does that qualify as a "skilled professional" visa? Yes, it does (minimally). If you saw what the low skilled people were like both professionally and socially, you would understand why. Your median foreign-born English teacher is at worst a neutral additions to Japanese society, and many have some upside. Note that I am saying this as someone who does not have a high opinion of tour ELT folks in general, but I still think it’s true.
  - claudiawerner 7y ago
    >Note that I am saying this as someone who does not have a high opinion of tour ELT folks in general, but I still think it’s true. I'm actually applying (after finishing my MEng degree this year) to do it for a year or two, and I'm also applying to pass JLPT N3 :-)
    - csa 7y ago
      Different worlds. An engineer with N3 is great. An English teacher with N(anything) is meh. Interestingly, the best English teachers can probably make more than the median engineers, but that’s a marketing issue. Stay true to your path, and learn something about the culture. If you dig it after a year or two, then switch to being a go-between. Folks who can bridge cultures are invaluable and are priced accordingly.
- Legogris 7y ago
  What I was talking about was the Highly Skilled Professionals (formerly called Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals) system, which is separate (edit GP). It's basically like an add-on on whatever other visa you're applying for or already have.
laurieg 7y ago
As a point of information, there are skilled visas and highly-skilled visas in Japan. The highly-skilled visas are the aforementioned point system but they make up a relatively small proportion of the non-Japanese population in Japan. Skilled visas basically only require a degree and a job. They are straightforward to get. Until recently Japan essentially filled its low-skill labor with students: You could work 28 hours per week on a student visa. Recently there has been a crackdown on this and a new "specified skills" visa created to try to replace student workers, however it is not yet popular[1]. [1]https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/21/national/japans-new-visas-falling-short/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/21/national/japans...
pentae 7y ago
According to the politicians when campaigning for this they copied Australias system.
cmdshiftf4 7y ago
>On another note, this is going to suck for "low-skilled" brits who want to move around the EU as I assume EU put some symmetry to this. Many EU countries have such high unemployment that they shouldn't be facilitating low-skilled foreign workers in the first place. I noticed a lot of young English and Australian people working in Italy, in the tourist areas, when I was there last. I understand that having the language (of tourists) is an attractive value proposition in exchange for low wages, but when the rate of unemployment for young Italians is so high, it felt very off to see them filling those positions.
- barry-cotter 7y ago
  > when the rate of unemployment for young Italians is so high, it felt very off to see them filling those positions. Italian graduates do not work menial jobs. They stay at home living with their parents or they emigrate if they can't get a professional job in Italy. And the level of English fluency in Italy is really, really low outside the professional classes. It's not the Netherlands.
SenHeng 7y ago
The irony being that Japan recently introduced a visa for low-skilled workers. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/26/national/japan-grants-first-work-permits-new-blue-collar-visa-system-address-labor-crunch/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/26/national/japan-...
valdiorn 7y ago
> On another note, this is going to suck for "low-skilled" brits who want to move around the EU as I assume EU put some symmetry to this. Well, that's sort of the point; keep the brits in Britain, get them to fill in the gaps in the job market there (like nursing and teaching, etc) instead of leaving the country. Also, by limiting the supply of workers, you might drive up the pay in those sectors as well. This all makes sense in theory; drive British people into sectors in need of workers by limiting choices, and remove foreign labor from those sectors to make room. The hope is better jobs for British people, wages stay in the country increasing tax income and money in circulation, and possibly resulting in higher salaries (because salaries were held down by the willingness of foreign workers to accept lower income than locals... at least in theory). What they haven't talked about however is that in a free market this should drive up the salaries of nurses and teachers, but the govt. refuses to add additional funding to those sectors, so unless they do something the NHS and the education system will basically implode over the next 10 years.
- davidgould 7y ago
  > the NHS and the education system will basically implode over the next 10 years Feature, not bug.
  - me_me_me 7y ago
    This is a long term patter, tories are de-funding NHS call it old and inefficient in a bid to convert it to "widely adopted and universally loved US style healthcare system". It feels like living in a Kafkaesque reality where people vote for people who are there to primary f them up. And then those people cheer them up.
  - barry-cotter 7y ago
    The UK primary and secondary education system have been among the worst to be a teacher in among developed Anglophone countries for decades, under Labour and Tory governments. Roughly 50% of England and Wales qualified teachers don't teach because it's an awful job. That's not a Tory thing, that's an English thing, or a British thing if Scotland is as bad.
- 7y ago

jariel 7y ago

There is really no news here. Every nation has some kind of immigration policy and the vast majority of nations don't provide many visas for low-skilled workers. The example for the UK is Australia/Canada points system for regular migration, which is exactly what the US (or anyone else) would do were there some kind of meaningful reform to its system. Canada does provide quite a number of temp-worker spots, but it's in a different scenario than the UK, i.e. no need for swaths of workers in remote areas like the Oil-Sands. That there are no special status for EU citizens I think is fundamentally part of the negotiating position, and within a couple of years, my bet is that EU citizens get 'more points' than others for whatever kind of work and visa-versa. That the headline leads as 'No Visas for Low-Skilled Workers' I think is unfair as it's not representative of the reform, which on the whole is as to be expected.

threeseed 7y ago
Actually Australia has a low skilled worker visa. It is called the 457 and it was abused so badly that it was abolished but still sort of remains. But during that time the government absolutely knew the extent of low skilled workers flooding into the country. All the parties loved it especially since Australia needed cheap labour to work at the 7/11 or drive Uber cars. We also abuse the living daylights out of backpackers who are forced to work in low skilled jobs e.g. picking fruits in order to qualify for a second round of the Working Holiday visa.
theflyinghorse 7y ago
> oil sands. The days of Oil Sands being an employment powerhouse are over. In fact there isn't much labour demand anywhere in Western Canada at the moment.

claudiawerner 7y ago

Many entry-tier English teaching (ALT or Eikaiwa) companies in Japan only require a native-level proficiency and Bachelor's degree from a recognized institution in order to hire you and get the visa sponsorship set up. Does that qualify as a "skilled professional" visa? Also to my knowledge, it's possible to gain citizenship in Japan after only five years of constant time in the country, so long as you're legally there, you can pass a basic Japanese language test (or write an essay), and show evidence that you can support yourself financially.

csa 7y ago
> Does that qualify as a "skilled professional" visa? Yes, it does (minimally). If you saw what the low skilled people were like both professionally and socially, you would understand why. Your median foreign-born English teacher is at worst a neutral additions to Japanese society, and many have some upside. Note that I am saying this as someone who does not have a high opinion of tour ELT folks in general, but I still think it’s true.
- claudiawerner 7y ago
  >Note that I am saying this as someone who does not have a high opinion of tour ELT folks in general, but I still think it’s true. I'm actually applying (after finishing my MEng degree this year) to do it for a year or two, and I'm also applying to pass JLPT N3 :-)
  - csa 7y ago
    Different worlds. An engineer with N3 is great. An English teacher with N(anything) is meh. Interestingly, the best English teachers can probably make more than the median engineers, but that’s a marketing issue. Stay true to your path, and learn something about the culture. If you dig it after a year or two, then switch to being a go-between. Folks who can bridge cultures are invaluable and are priced accordingly.
Legogris 7y ago
What I was talking about was the Highly Skilled Professionals (formerly called Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals) system, which is separate (edit GP). It's basically like an add-on on whatever other visa you're applying for or already have.

laurieg 7y ago

As a point of information, there are skilled visas and highly-skilled visas in Japan. The highly-skilled visas are the aforementioned point system but they make up a relatively small proportion of the non-Japanese population in Japan. Skilled visas basically only require a degree and a job. They are straightforward to get. Until recently Japan essentially filled its low-skill labor with students: You could work 28 hours per week on a student visa. Recently there has been a crackdown on this and a new "specified skills" visa created to try to replace student workers, however it is not yet popular[1]. [1]https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/21/national/japans-new-visas-falling-short/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/21/national/japans...

pentae 7y ago

According to the politicians when campaigning for this they copied Australias system.

cmdshiftf4 7y ago

>On another note, this is going to suck for "low-skilled" brits who want to move around the EU as I assume EU put some symmetry to this. Many EU countries have such high unemployment that they shouldn't be facilitating low-skilled foreign workers in the first place. I noticed a lot of young English and Australian people working in Italy, in the tourist areas, when I was there last. I understand that having the language (of tourists) is an attractive value proposition in exchange for low wages, but when the rate of unemployment for young Italians is so high, it felt very off to see them filling those positions.

barry-cotter 7y ago
> when the rate of unemployment for young Italians is so high, it felt very off to see them filling those positions. Italian graduates do not work menial jobs. They stay at home living with their parents or they emigrate if they can't get a professional job in Italy. And the level of English fluency in Italy is really, really low outside the professional classes. It's not the Netherlands.

SenHeng 7y ago

The irony being that Japan recently introduced a visa for low-skilled workers. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/26/national/japan-grants-first-work-permits-new-blue-collar-visa-system-address-labor-crunch/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/26/national/japan-...

valdiorn 7y ago

> On another note, this is going to suck for "low-skilled" brits who want to move around the EU as I assume EU put some symmetry to this. Well, that's sort of the point; keep the brits in Britain, get them to fill in the gaps in the job market there (like nursing and teaching, etc) instead of leaving the country. Also, by limiting the supply of workers, you might drive up the pay in those sectors as well. This all makes sense in theory; drive British people into sectors in need of workers by limiting choices, and remove foreign labor from those sectors to make room. The hope is better jobs for British people, wages stay in the country increasing tax income and money in circulation, and possibly resulting in higher salaries (because salaries were held down by the willingness of foreign workers to accept lower income than locals... at least in theory). What they haven't talked about however is that in a free market this should drive up the salaries of nurses and teachers, but the govt. refuses to add additional funding to those sectors, so unless they do something the NHS and the education system will basically implode over the next 10 years.

davidgould 7y ago
> the NHS and the education system will basically implode over the next 10 years Feature, not bug.
- me_me_me 7y ago
  This is a long term patter, tories are de-funding NHS call it old and inefficient in a bid to convert it to "widely adopted and universally loved US style healthcare system". It feels like living in a Kafkaesque reality where people vote for people who are there to primary f them up. And then those people cheer them up.
- barry-cotter 7y ago
  The UK primary and secondary education system have been among the worst to be a teacher in among developed Anglophone countries for decades, under Labour and Tory governments. Roughly 50% of England and Wales qualified teachers don't teach because it's an awful job. That's not a Tory thing, that's an English thing, or a British thing if Scotland is as bad.
7y ago