Britain’s new immigration system

Free movement from the EU ends next year and Britain has taken back control of its borders. What will that mean in practical terms? And who benefits?

Priti Patel might be able to lure more British workers from their sofas
(Image credit: MI News/NurPhoto)

What has happened?

The government has announced details of its new “firm and fair points-based immigration system” that will take effect from 1 January 2021, when free movement between the UK and EU will end. The overall aim of the new system, according to the home secretary, Priti Patel, is to “take back control of our borders”, cut the overall level of immigration and move away from relying on “cheap labour” from Europe. Instead, the UK wants to “encourage people with the right talent” to move to the UK from all around the world with the underlying vision of creating a “high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy”.

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.