Ross Clark Ross Clark

It would be ridiculous to clamp down on foreign students

(Photo: iStock)

Oh, the embarrassment. The government commissioned its own Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to investigate whether graduate visas (which grant overseas students the right to stay in Britain for two years after graduation) are being exploited and should be abolished. This was seemingly in the hope of gaining some ammunition to do away with a measure which it only introduced three years ago. Trouble is, the MAC has now come back and said that the visas are not being abused and should remain.

Rather than reform the Human Rights Act to stop outrages, the government clamps down on the soft targets

The government now has a choice. It can go ahead and abolish the visas anyway, possibly adding that the MAC is made up of a bunch of pinkos and vested interests, given that its members are all academics. Or it can accept the findings and embrace graduate visas, and stop worrying that they are adding to net migration.

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