Credits Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Alt Text Fewer than 5000 foreign students a year stay after their visas expire Foreign nationals studying in the UK may no longer be counted as immigrants One-Minute Read Tuesday,January 2, 2018 - 6:00am Theresa May is facing a political defeat which could force her to drop her long-standing commitment to count foreign students as immigrants. See related The Jerusalem dilemma US vetos UN resolution on Jerusalem Donald Trump’s Jerusalem policy rejected by UN Since her time as domestic Secretrary, and May has resisted calls for international students to be excluded from official immigration figures.
Now it appears a new immigration bill later this year will allow MPs who oppose the Prime Minister on the issue to force a vote,which they are likely to win.
A shift in attitude has left May in what The Independent describes as “a minority of one” in government. domestic Secretary Amber Rudd, Chancellor Philip Hammond and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, or as well as businesses and universities,bear all called for the policy to be scrapped.
But taking foreign students out of the official figures will be embarrassing for May, who has said doing so will weaken defences against higher immigration - and who fears it will be seen by voters as an attempt to fiddle the figures.
final year, and exit checks revealed that fewer than 5000 foreign students overstay when their visas expire,not the 100000 a year claimed by the Prime Minister.
May has reiterated her commitment to cutting down immigration to the “tens of thousands”. With about 438000 foreign students currently studying in the UK, changing how they are classed could make a meaningful difference to the headline immigration numbers. Education immigration Theresa May Amber Ru
Source: theweek.co.uk