Charles Clarke (Photo, as it appears on www.ics.ltsn.ac.uk)

LONDON: Plans to introduce an Australian-style points system for people wanting to migrate to Britain could benefit Indian skilled workers.

The plans, announced on Feb. 7 by the British Home Secretary Charles Clarke, seek to both encourage the movement of skilled labor and crack down on those who abuse the system, according to government leaders.

“Migration for work, migration to study is a good thing,” Clarke said on Feb. 6. “What is wrong is when that system isn’t properly policed and people are coming here who are a burden on the society, and it is that which we intend to drive out.”

The new Australian-type scheme, to be enforced over five years, is based on a would-be migrant’s education and skills, which will then be matched to job vacancies in Britain. There will also be changes in the procedures by which a person who has lived and worked out of Britain for a certain length of time can claim permanent residence and citizenship Currently the minimum period is four years. The system has long been thought to be abused, especially by people claiming political asylum in Britain. There has also been a long-standing demand for its reform. But critics of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s proposals suspect they are a cynical exercise aimed at stealing a poll plank from under the feet of the opposition Conservative Party at the general elections due by summer.

“After eight years in power, and just months before an election Blair claims that he can fix Britain’s chaotic asylum and immigration system,” said Conservative Party home affairs spokesman David Davis, adding: “It’s all talk.” What few commentators mention in the heated party political wrangling over immigration and asylum is that it masks a wider debate on economic globalization and the movement of labor.

A clear winner of the Blair government’s immigration policy in recent years has been the skilled worker from India ––– typically young men working in information technology, but also students, doctors and nurses.

Many are headhunted by British firms from India ––– sometimes for salaries that are far less than what a Briton with similar skills would have been offered. Some of the skilled labor movement is through tie-ups between Indian and British companies, where Indian workers are sent on short-term visas.

According to government figures, Indians were the top nationality group in the number of work permits that were granted in 2003. Some 42 percent of the total work permit holders in 2003 came from Asia ––– of them, the largest number (19 percent) were from India and Europe.

In all, a total of 81,350 work permit holders entered Britain in 2003 ––– along with 37,830 dependents. According to leaked media reports, applicants wishing to settle permanently will now have to prove they are financially viable and will not need the support of the state to live. The curbs on settlement are intended to end an apparent “dependent upon dependent” pattern of settlement, including through sham marriages.