Proposed UK Immigration Reform

            This article is a question and answer overview of the UK’s proposed immigration reform. It starts out with a surprising thought – reducing UK’s net immigration from 200,000 down to the tens of thousands by 2015! That’s a big change; apparently they really feel immigration is causing problems. The major concerns regarding the reform are the pressures that the British feel immigration is placing upon education, as well as accusations of wages driven down by an increase of foreign employees.

            The immigration bill addresses the situation by asking landlords to check whether or not tenants are legally in the UK. Furthermore, banks will be required to check for citizenship before opening accounts. Also included in the bill is a 200 pound per year fee for temporary migrants to cover health care costs to the NHS. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the bill requires biracial marriages – specifically those between a person of English descent and a non-European – to be registered into a database.

            The bill is largely supported, but has some resistance. Liberal Democrats feel the bill is being “rushed through” Parliament. There is also resistance from landlords and hospitals, who feel the portions of the bill that concern them will cause problems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24626767