Part 3: Politically Driven

Letter to Stephen Gilbert MP on Student Visas from LSE Students’ Union. Part 3 of 3: Politically Driven

3. Lack of consideration for Liberal Democrats’ views

The proposal at hand does not address the real challenge: Cracking down on bogus institutions that offer fake degrees in exchange for high fees and a student visa. It is, to the contrary, a blunt political instrument of the powerful anti-immigration wing of the Conservative Party.

Nicholas Watt’s Guardian piece of 14 April 2011 quotes a Liberal Democrat source as saying that “Nick [Clegg] and Vince [Cable] are very proud to have worked hard to get the policies where they are. The Tories wanted a student migration cap. That has not happened.”

Yet the reality is that if these restrictions are imposed, they will create the same effect—many fewer students coming to the UK. What matter is a ‘cap’ or not if the plan will dramatically cut students? Those students who do come will be more likely to exclusively pursue high-income careers like banking, or come from means that support the high international fees and limited acceptable work opportunities available under the new regime.

The stated Conservative goal is to “reduce immigration to the tens of thousands.” The Liberal Democrats favour an earned amnesty for illegal migrants who have lived in the UK for a decade. The manifestos of the parties—independent of each other—on the role of migrants in British society are clearly distant. The proposal on the table strikes a balance that, I hope to have shown, is far afield of Liberal Democrats’ views.

Despite the understood arrangement of Coalition, the immigration policy is surely a bridge too far. The result of the policy will be a Conservative one, but it is asking for Liberal Democrats’ votes to pass. It actively undermines an understanding of Britain as a nexus of high-quality education and a country dedicated to maintaining a global footprint.

Out of respect for your own party’s supposedly immutable values—free and successful markets that build a globally respected Britain—I would urge you and your Liberal Democrat colleagues to vote against the proposal at hand.

Thank you for reading. I look forward to your response and working together to create a smarter student visa policy.

Part 1: Making the UK Unattractive

Part 2: Economic Effects

Posted in: Driven,Politically