Firstly, I don't think the answer to filling low paid jobs should just be to bring in people who are just grateful for any job here and pay them a pittance too. The aim should be to increase the salaries of those jobs so that the people doing them can actually live a decent quality of life, whether they happen to be British or not.
But yeah regardless, was surprised to see the mention of a doctor coming up short at a points based immigration system. A middle class, highly educated, English speaking healthcare professional is never going to be disadvantaged by a points based system in an English speaking country. Doctors would literally be near the top of the list in terms of careers which are in demand and required.
I can't help some people are blinded by a mixture of the BBC headline and their own dislike of Starmer in their responses here.
There are very few healthcare systems where workforce planning seems to be based mostly around recruiting overseas workers, as the NHS increasingly seems to be. Causing mass drain from poor countries for professionals who are required for a semi-reasonable running of a country as an active policy seems incredibly immoral to me. I think in most instances, most would agree but seems to be weirdly accepted in the NHS.
No, I don’t think such jobs should get paid a pittance either, and I’d gladly get behind a politician who runs on a platform of paying “low skilled” workers more, as well as paying doctors & nurses more to drive up domestic recruitment.
Keir hasn’t made any mention of that, and I didn’t just read the headline. I won’t hold my breath on him committing to it.
He wants to appeal to a select group in this country, and so far his only commitment to immigration has been to admit that his Labour government “wouldn’t be much different” to the Tories, and it’s not lost on me how he equates “open borders” when referring to immigration - its a dog whistle. Anybody who's been through the immigration process in this country knows just how difficult it is, even for someone with a job that is high up on the ladder because of some made up points.
The very idea of a points-based immigration system is steeped in eugenics, so while my dad may have deemed "acceptable" to come into this country under such system - my mum very much would not, and I struggle to see how I'm supposed to support a left-leaning party with such ideologies.
I don't dislike Starmer more or less than 99% of politicians, in fact most of my disdain for him has come as a result of him opening up his mouth and letting me know exactly where he stands on issues that I care about. You can pin blame on the BBC for sensationalising, but the actual article & video of what he said isn't much different.