Policy: The Welfare State National Security and Terrorism

Policy Challenge
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Institute of Affiliation
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Policy Challenge
Introduction
The size and characteristics of immigration in United Kingdom have changed significantly. They are more mobile, diverse and numerous than before. Their experience is consequently different. The UK immigration policy has undergone radical changes. The forces exerted to the policy makers made them look at the illegality involved during immigration process. Immigration into United Kingdom is roughly estimated to be 150,000 net immigrants per yearCITATION Ver01 \l 1033 (Vertovec, 2001). The newest set of immigration data shows that net migration to the UK for the year ending September 2015 had reached approximately 323,000 hovering just the historical peak 336,000 that occurred in the previous year 2014.The estimated percentage drop is therefore 4% below this spike. The net migration has risen by 12% since 2005 .The number of immigrants are drastically increasing year in year outCITATION Ger08 \l 1033 (German & Fund, 2008). This paper shall focus on the immigration policies adopted by the UK and their effectiveness in regulation of immigration. The challenges that the government faces in implementing immigration policies shall be focused on and possible solutions suggested.
Policy Regulations
In 2010, the new UK government introduced an annual cap on the number of non-EU migrants entering the UK; with a limit on net migration of 100,000 per annum. These restrictions come in light of increasing public concern towards migration. In 2012, the UK government reaffirmed its intention to restrict immigration, arguing that migrants adversely affect social cohesion, create pressure on infrastructure, public services, jobs and wages. These examples illustrate how, over the years, the UK government has adopted a more strict position towards immigration in both policy making and rhetoricCITATION licch \l 1033 (Codes, 2008).
Net migration into the UK is a phenomenon of globalization. Globally, numbers of migrants have increased as a proportion of the population, and the UK is not therefore the only country to have experienced the increase CITATION Mar33 \l 1033 (Williams & Law, 2012). United Kingdom has passed various laws to regulate immigration process. The citizens and the settled residents must now earn at least $18,600 if they want to bring their spouse to the UK.The policy has prevented many number of visa applications made by many families that earn below the set standard. Report by the government indicated that 4,000 applications were affected CITATION Dus14 \l 1033 (Dustmann & Frattini, 2014).
Students work rights have been reduced and more scrutiny introduced over colleges sponsoring international students. The government promised its program ‘abuse of the immigration system’ via students’ routes where migrants were suspected of coming to work rather than coming to study. This implies that they come to UK to work contrary to what the records indicate. New measures reduced permitted working hours and raised language requirements for students at further education colleges. Government revoked licenses of over 800 colleges who fail to meet the lawCITATION Wil09 \l 1033 (Somerville, Sriskandar...