A solution is needed to slow down the rapid growth of the population in the UK. “current projections suggesting it [the population] could rise to 78.6 million by the middle of the century”. ( Toby Helm (2008) "expel immigrants after four years says report" [online] available;http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/07/immigration.visas) The reason for this rapid growth is the huge influx of immigrants into this country. Unlike New Zealand there is little restriction in place to prevent huge numbers of immigrants entering Britain. Over population would not help existing problems of unemployment. The new proposals include a quota on the number of non eu immigrants entering the country.

There needs to be a limitation on the numbers of non-EU immigrants entering the UK because there are only so many jobs available and the UK cannot keep accommodating for everyone. In addition public services; healthcare, education and housing are strained already. If there is no limitation on the number of immigrants entering Britain then there will be more strain on these services in the future. Although the UK cannot control the numbers of EU immigrants entering the country it can and must control the numbers of non- EU immigrants.

The NHS would be under even greater strain wereit not for non-EU migrants. In fact, the NHS was pretty much saved by such immigrants filling up all the nursing employment gaps. To then shut all non-EU immigrants out claiming that they are putting a strain on an instiution their labour went towards building up is more than a little unfair. Why not instead throw out those who have done nothing to help the NHS, the voluntarily unemployed maybe a good starting point.

Far from deterring skilled workers, it would allow the very best workers; those with 'exceptional intellectual, scientific or artistic merit' (ibid) to stay in Britain after their four year work permit expires. If immigrants knew that they had to prove their skills in order to remain in Britain, then surely this would be a motivation for them to work harder in their jobs, thus helping the economy. However, there is still a setback for those exceptional workers. They can only stay if the quota is not violated. Would this be too much of a deterrent for skilled workers?

Hitler had a well thought out plan too but I see no one praising him for his ideas! Communism is also a very well thought out idea, cupturing people from the outside-in is very innovative, but it does not work. So who is to say that just because this immigrant plan is well thought out that it will work?

It is estimated that by 2031, if immigration policies do not change we will need 7 cities the size of Birmingham! There simply is not enough room for this in our already over populated nation. By basing an immigration system on the skills that we are in short supply of only we will only need to make room for those who we truly need. Once the short fall has been filled, after 4 years the non-EU citizens can return home after making a healthy profit out of their time in Britain.

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Perhaps this would be better for the British economy if the best workers were deterred. That way the government would have to spend more money on the training of British citizens to fill such positions, leaving Britain with a better educated and trained work force. Then, there would be more low paid, unskilled jobs available, jobs which need little training, and the immigrants can assume these employment positions for four years.

It simply is not fair to allow a person to enter a new country, find a new job and build a new life for four years and then take it away from them. If an immigrant knew they would not be able to call this country their home it would deter them from integrating properly into this country. In fact this would probably make Britain their last choice. Instead, skilled workers would prefer to enter a country that would fully accept them and motivate them to be successful. As a result the immigrants with little skill would be attracted here.

The taxes that these immigrants would pay would not cover the costs of hosting them in Britain. If immigration is not impeded by this 4 year scheme, we will need 7 cities the size of Birmingham to house them all by 2031.

To get these 7 cities, we would have to cut into the country side and agricultural land. This would mean a reduction in food production at a time when we had reached an all time peak in population.

As for the training aspect of immigrant workers, they will have to have a full competancy of English before they would be allowed to work in Britain under the Feild-Soames model, so they would not need to be encouraged to learn English whilst in Britain.

You are also misled in your perception of employment in modern Britain if you think employers are not adept to training up employees every four years. There are plenty of jobs where staff turnover is so high that yearly training is needed.

Both skilled and unskilled immigrants are a great help to their British employers. Far from being a liability, they will work hard for their wages and do jobs that most people would turn their noses up to! It would be an unnecessary nuisance for employers to have to continuously recruit every four years when they already have competent staff. Moreover it would deem any training and chance to learn new skills futile. Immigrants would not be able to better themselves or learn new skills that would benefit them in their future careers. In addition the government should remember that immigrants are beneficial to Britain. They should encourage those skilled workers that are allowed to remain here by encouraging them to learn English or skills for their jobs.

The taxes and National Insurance that immigrants will pay during their four year work permit will be money well spent for those four years. They will reap the benefits from those taxes by being cared for by the NHS and being protected by the police and firefighters. They are instantaneous benefits from paying taxes, they do not have to stay more than four years to get their money's worth.

Immigrants will have to earn a living and pay taxes the same as everyone else. It is only right that they should be allowed to stay on and continue contributing to the economy and having access to healthcare and everything else we take for granted

Because society hasn't advanced since Queen Victoria was on the throne. People accept that immigrants, foreigners and those who are different bring contributions to our country. That is not the debate. The debate is whether they are financially beneficial to Britain when not working. They may well be working, but given that their work permit has expired, they will definitely not be paying taxes. And given the current trend in unemployment, there are very few employment gaps that cannot be filled by people who are legally allowed to be here.

It has always been the case that immigrants, ‘foreigners’, those who are different, are used as scapegoats. The Irish were blamed for British poverty in the C19th , and now immigrants are being blamed for anything negative in Britain. Immigrants do make positive contributions to society, not only do they pay taxes, and fill jobs which would otherwise remain empty, but they also add to our multicultural nation. They provide us with variety and knowledge, harmony is what is needed, not this hostile attitude.

We must take note that most non-EU immigrants currently in the UK are graduates of British universities. This indicates that prior to legal employment; they have already been living in the UK for more than 3 years (for a Bachelor's degree student at least). As the Home Office favours applicants with British qualifications to apply for work permits, the proposed scheme will certainly deter potential students outside of EU to choose to study in the UK. This is because they would certainly like to kick-start their careers in the country that they graduate from to gain the necessary skills before returning home eventually. Hence, in the long run, the proposed scheme will bring about loss of income to the country as there would be fewer non-EU students who would want to study in the UK, as well as less professional immigrant employees to contribute to the economy of UK (by paying tax).