Theresa May's student repatriation plans dropped

Theresa May's plans to repatriate foreign students when they finish at university and force them to apply for a visa to come back have been dropped.

The Times of India says that UK universities have already seen a drop in applications from foreign students since the announcement was made and experts have warned that the UK could lose out on those lucrative fee-paying foreign students to Canada and Australia.

May has defended the plans, saying that on current figures there would be 600k foreign students living in the UK. Obviously something has to be done about immigration but these foreign students who stay are highly educated and qualified and almost certainly in a subject that is useful, given the cost involved. The Tories want to discourage highly educated foreign students with degrees from UK universities who have already been living here for two or three years, speak English and have made a home here from staying on and working in the UK to mitigate some of the impact of uncontrolled immigration from unskilled, poorly educated EU economic migrants.

Just like benefit "reforms" such as the bedroom tax and fitness for work assessments for disabled people, the Tories see the problem but get the solution completely wrong.

Theresa May considers repatriating non-EU students

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, is considering changing immigration laws to force non-EU students to go back to their home country and apply for a visa if they want to work here after they graduate.

Whilst it is obviously important to make sure that students wanting to remain in the UK should have to apply for a visa, it makes no sense to force them to fly back home and then fly back again when their visa application is approved. It could cost them thousands of pounds with no benefit to either side.

When you hear someone talking about repatriation of foreigners, it's usually the BNP or the English Democrats not the Tories but such is their desperation to appear to be tough on immigration that they'll resort to BNP rhetoric.