"We've taken action to reduce migration. Student dependent applications are now down by 80%," read a post by the United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) made on the social media platform X today, Wednesday, May 15.
The motion media informs about the new policies introduced to reduce the inflow of migrants in the country, where foreign master's students are now prohibited from bringing in their family members, and overseas care workers cannot bring their dependents. The steps have been taken to address ongoing issues of immigration that are possibly becoming a disadvantage for British job seekers.
According to the London daily, Evening Standard, a survey conducted in 75 United Kingdom (UK) universities found that there was a perceptible decrease of 88 per cent in postgraduate applications for the September 2024 session, reportedly an aggregated decrease of 27 per cent compared to the previous year's intake.
It further stated that the reduction in applications was due to the restrictions imposed on international students bringing family members over to the country as well as higher salary thresholds for work visas.
The rapid review of the Graduate Route Visa also created a few speculations on what the decision could entail. Although, yesterday, May 14, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) gave its verdict on the Graduate Visa saying that it was "unproblematic'" and that it did not find any instances, wherein, it was being exploited by the students.