UK Education Secretary Orders For A Review Of Education Immigration In The UK

Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, has ordered officials to investigate how much of a “pull factor” state schools are for immigrants with families who decide to move to the UK.

Ministers are planning a major new crackdown on migrants who come to Britain for a free state school education or enroll at a university as an excuse to find work.

Until now government efforts to make Britain less attractive to migrants have focused on tackling so-called “health tourism” and “benefits tourism”. The government has cut welfare entitlements for migrants from the European Union and made plans to ensure immigrants from outside Europe pay for their NHS treatment.

However, Mrs Morgan wants to establish whether the increasing levels of immigration to Britain can be attributed in part to “education tourism”. The trend could apply to families coming to Britain from eastern Europe as well as outside the EU. One important attraction is likely to be the opportunity to become proficient in English, the global language of business.

Mrs Morgan’s action comes as the Home Office draws up plans to limit the number of foreign students who come to study at British universities, in an attempt to meet the Conservative government’s goal of reducing net migration to the “tens of thousands” per year. Under Home Office plans, new restrictions could be placed on foreign students coming to study for the least prestigious university courses.

Ministers have set a goal of cutting net migration to the tens of thousands but latest figure show there were more 300,000 more migrants entering the country than leaving last year.

The crisis in the Mediterranean has seen tens of thousands of illegal migrants arrive in Europe from North Africa. A camp known as the Jungle has formed at Calais in northern France, where thousands of migrants have gathered as they attempt to find a way into Britain. There have been chaotic scenes with mass disruption this summer as thousands of migrants attempted to storm the border at Calais and jump onto lorries and trains bound for the UK.

Teachers’ unions have warned that schools are struggling to cope with an influx of pupils who speak more than 300 different languages. English is no longer the majority language at one in nine state schools in England. In parts of east London, more than three quarters of pupils do not speak English as their first language.

A senior government source said all Whitehall departments had a responsibility to help tackle illegal immigration and reduce net migration.

Mrs Morgan disclosed in an interview with The Telegraph earlier this year that she had ordered civil servants in the Department for Education to investigate the impact of mass migration on state schools.

The review is expected to propose new measures to help teachers cope with the pressure caused by having to help children who do not speak English. It is thought to be a particularly acute problem in the early years of primary school, in certain parts of the country with large communities of immigrant families.

However, the inquiry has now been broadened to examine whether the free state education system itself makes Britain a destination of choice for migrants, government sources said.

“It is important for every government department to play their part in tackling immigration,” a senior government source said. “As we have a cross-governmental focus on reducing immigration and tackling illegal immigration, it is right that we look at what role the education system is playing, not just in terms of the impact but also as a factor in attracting people to this country in the first place.

“The scope of the DfE review has been broadened to look at how much of a pull factor state schools are. We are also looking at what sort of measures we could put in place to make sure that if there is an impact that we are mitigating against it.”

A separate government move is expected to see action to reduce the numbers of students coming to Britain to study. Government officials have become concerned that some universities are marketing a student visa as a way to get into Britain in order to find a job.

Students could also be required to prove they have access to higher levels of funding to see them through their courses, while children and spouses of postgraduate students who accompany them to Britain could be banned from taking unskilled jobs.