Points system for immigrants from next year

I don't think that's going to help in some employment areas with big shortages, e.g. of care staff. I don't know, but I can't imagine they're high earners.

It’s only what a lot of other countries already do in some form or another. I do think immigrants should be able to speak reasonable English to live here

We need care workers, agricultural workers, cooks for ethnic food and all sorts of other jobs that would never earn £25600. Even nurses don't get that much.
Most people coming here, especially from the EU, do speak English, and soon get very colloquial. How many ex-pats in Spain speak Spanish that well?

Johnson's comment was 'well this is what you voted for'.

Patel is a very agile speaker and did an excellent job of not answering Charlie Staites questions on BBC. She speaks of 8.5m “economically inactive” UK residents, that is over 10% of the population just how they are going to be made to work is going to be interesting.
There will be lots of exemptions for low paid workers in many sectors it seems employers will be able to recruit workers from overseas using agencies in much the same way as at present.

A bit late in the day, isn't it ?
Who's going to do the hospitality jobs ? Waiting on, care homes, fruit and veg picking, those tasks that pay buttons ! Not the Brits that's for sure.
It should have been implemented in 1980 before the poverty and hardship that we see now.

Are you saying you are happy for companies to employ cheap labour from abroad rather than pay a living wage to a resident of UK?

Are you saying you are happy for companies to employ cheap labour from abroad rather than pay a living wage to a resident of UK?

Excellent point

So many comments on social media saying how much we need cheap labour.

Nobody seems to understand just what it is they're saying

We go on about the entitled and privileged then say we have to have Eastern Europeans to do the awful jobs that we just won't do.

Entitled and privileged much?

Migrant workers travel thousands of miles to do work that our own unemployed won’t cross the road for.

Is it their “right” to choose to do nothing useful or is it their “responsibility” to be a useful citizen.

Davidhs your first paragraph brings up an interesting question and it doesn't just happen in this country.

This English language thing is just a sop - in all the decades I've worked with people from the EU I have never known anyone who didn't speak at least reasonable English. Of course many spoke grammatically better English than many locals!

I can't imagine many people from wherever in the world who came here to work didn't speak English.

Many of the EDL types who swagger around proclaiming England for the English don't seem economically active - like the sh*t who murdered Jo Cox - maybe they'll work in our care homes, serve food, do back-breaking work in fields at 4 a.m.

I think not.

I live in the area of highest unemployment in the U.K. .

We have no jobs for anyone . And average wages around here are some of the lowest in the country .

There will be a desperate shortage of care workers and other essential but lower paid staff when this comes in. This was to be expected by voting for Brexit.
I don't believe that many of the "economically inactive" people are in a position to do these jobs else they would already be applying for them.

Why do we accept the perception that only foreign workers will take what we call low skilled jobs? Every job needs a skill to be well done. Give carers, for example, credit for the job they do and pay them properly. We need a Florence Nightingale to raise the status of the caring profession.

No, I'm not talking about cheap labour as such----no matter how much the pay would be, you wouldn't get many takers who are British who would work in hospitality anyway---it's hard work !
I can't abide exploitation either !

Exactly, Riverwalk.

Who's going to care for our elderly, clean the hospitals, pick fruit and veg and work in our hotels? Are the Brits really going to take up the slack when it's jobs that no one wants to do?

I think this point-based system is pointless and that it will be damaging for our country. I believe workers in care services, farming, construction industries, education have good reasons to be worried. I worked as a language teachers for many years in a comprehensive school. Now teachers say some pupils don't turn up for language lessons because ”we have left the EU and we don't need to learn languages any more”. It's all so sad.

The 2 care homes in our village are staffed by mainly EU staff. I should say understaffed as many shifts don’t have the full complement. They are permanently recruiting. There needs to be a rethink on this policy or the care sector will collapse or become even more expensive for the users.

Great news.
We managed before the country was flooded with cheap labour from the EU - & we’ll manage again.

Possibly a way to cope with a points system would be to VARY the amount of points needed according to occupation.

Desperate for nurses? JUST enough points to require good quality qualifications.

Don't need teachers (we wish!)? 50 entry points required.

Kandisnsky, explain just how you know so much about the differences in employment between now and 45+ years ago, other than what you have read in certain newspapers of course? Also, can I just point out that there are rules and regulations on working hours, minimum wages etc., and if the labour from EU was 'cheap' that can only be because employers were breaking the law. A care worker or waiter should be paid the same whether they were born in Bolton or Bulgaria.

Australia has had a similar points system for many years.
Probably other countries too.
But perhaps they haven't got the situation as it is here, where
many young British people refuse to do what they see as demeaning jobs. you need to go to Uni, get a degree, then accept nothing less than a top job in Finance or Internet technology.
Or being a Celeb on TV or the social media.
I think the idea of a job as a footballer in the Premier League may have lost its charm lately.
I was very shocked recently when talking to a younger female friend about their family's financial problems . I suggested she apply for a job as a cashier in a store I knew needed one. She said no - "My children would be so ashamed of me!"
If I was 20 years younger I would apply for that job.
I'll probably get shouted down on this.

Those living near farms be prepared to pick your own fruit and veg. Why not ? We had to do it in the 50's.

Fennel, I agree with you. Nobody will get out of bed for less than 3 or £400 a week---for doing very little !!