(UK) New immigration policy favours the wealthy, say critics
Critics have accused the government of paving the way for a selective immigration policy whereby only the wealthy will be able to marry who they want from abroad, and only migrants earning more than £31,000 a year will be able to settle in Britain.
The immigration minister, Damian Green, will confirm on Thursday that ministers want to move to a more highly selective policy under which only the right kind of migrants are allowed to enter Britain.
"We need to know not just that the right numbers of people are coming here but that the right people are coming here. People who will benefit Britain, not just those who benefit by Britain," Green will argue in a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank.
Green also wants to move the immigration debate on from the single issue of numbers that has dominated for the past decade and instead focus on the benefit to Britain of allowing only the "brightest and the best" into the UK.
full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/02/selective-immigration-policy-wealthy
If a country is a welfare state, is it hard enough when its own citizens are reliant on social services or struggling to find jobs to accept poorer immigrants?