From the Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...1/nvisa121.xml
What have New Zealand and Australia ever done for us? Apart from getting thousands of their young men killed in WW1, WW2.
Still no room for sentiment in our glorious EUtopia.
Would our Aussie, Kiwis, Saffies friends care to comment?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...1/nvisa121.xml
Britain may abolish ancestry visa
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 4:23pm GMT 21/02/2008
Britain is proposing to sever its historic ties to tens of thousands of Commonwealth nationals who have an automatic right through descent to live and work here.
The small print of this week’s Home Office green paper charting new pathways to citizenship suggests the ancestry visa might be abolished.
The visa enables people aged 17 or over whose grandparents were born in the UK to come for four years and eventually apply to stay.
It is used mainly by young Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans coming to Britain to work and as a base to explore Europe.
The ancestry provisions were introduced in 1972 after legislation the previous year overhauled Commonwealth citizenship rights
Those entering under the UK ancestry route have free access to the labour market on entry.
However, the Government is in the process of introducing a points-based system for work permits and tougher rules for obtaining citizenship.
The green paper says: "We need to decide whether a Commonwealth national’s ancestral connections to the UK are sufficient to allow them to come here to work without the need to satisfy a resident labour market test."
The paper, which is open for consultation, asks: '"Do you think the UK ancestry route should be abolished?"
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Great Grimsby, says the proposal shows a "contempt for the long historic associations between Britain, New Zealand and Australia."
He adds: "We should have serious doubts about the judgment of ministers and officials who are willing to stir up the feelings of bitterness and betrayal which will be provoked by their unthinking lack of concern for historic ties which so many of us value, here as well as there."
In 2006. around 8,500 ancestry visa holders came to the UK and around 20,000 Commonwealth citizens have applied for settlement since 2002 Mr Mitchell last night said he proposed to table a Commons motion to increase pressure on Ministers to drop the idea.
"What is happening here is that in a general rush to make ourselves European, we are trying to shrug off our Commonwealth commitments."
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 4:23pm GMT 21/02/2008
Britain is proposing to sever its historic ties to tens of thousands of Commonwealth nationals who have an automatic right through descent to live and work here.
The small print of this week’s Home Office green paper charting new pathways to citizenship suggests the ancestry visa might be abolished.
The visa enables people aged 17 or over whose grandparents were born in the UK to come for four years and eventually apply to stay.
It is used mainly by young Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans coming to Britain to work and as a base to explore Europe.
The ancestry provisions were introduced in 1972 after legislation the previous year overhauled Commonwealth citizenship rights
Those entering under the UK ancestry route have free access to the labour market on entry.
However, the Government is in the process of introducing a points-based system for work permits and tougher rules for obtaining citizenship.
The green paper says: "We need to decide whether a Commonwealth national’s ancestral connections to the UK are sufficient to allow them to come here to work without the need to satisfy a resident labour market test."
The paper, which is open for consultation, asks: '"Do you think the UK ancestry route should be abolished?"
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Great Grimsby, says the proposal shows a "contempt for the long historic associations between Britain, New Zealand and Australia."
He adds: "We should have serious doubts about the judgment of ministers and officials who are willing to stir up the feelings of bitterness and betrayal which will be provoked by their unthinking lack of concern for historic ties which so many of us value, here as well as there."
In 2006. around 8,500 ancestry visa holders came to the UK and around 20,000 Commonwealth citizens have applied for settlement since 2002 Mr Mitchell last night said he proposed to table a Commons motion to increase pressure on Ministers to drop the idea.
"What is happening here is that in a general rush to make ourselves European, we are trying to shrug off our Commonwealth commitments."
Still no room for sentiment in our glorious EUtopia.
Would our Aussie, Kiwis, Saffies friends care to comment?
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