UK Immigration Minister vows to provide more jobs to British graduates

London, Feb 2 (ANI): The UK Immigration Minister Damian Green has pledged that British graduates would be given more jobs after it emerged that the arrival of thousands of non-European Union (EU) graduates every year has deprived Britons from finding jobs in their own country.

One in five young Briton is unable to find a job in the worst labour market on record for under-25s, and yet graduates have to compete against 40,000 non-EU students who finish their courses at the same time, the Daily Mail reports.

While demanding a halt to thousands of non-EU students' arrival in Britain and echoing the last government's pledge to deliver British jobs for British workers, Green said: "It's quite important that we have a proper fair playing field for British graduates in the jobs market."

Although universities that depend on tuition fees from overseas students have downplayed the plans, Green insisted on cutting the numbers of student visas issued each year.

He would reportedly make it tough for non-EU students to attend private colleges offering non-degree courses, which if approved, would apparently slash the number of arrivals by around 90,000 each year.

"To allow unfettered access to the jobs market for two years to anyone with a student visa from abroad is putting an unnecessary extra strain on our own graduates. That's clearly an area where the current system is too generous. We want to encourage people to stay in education for as long as possible," the paper quoted Green, as saying.

"If they think they are going to incur the expense of a student course and then not have a job at the end of it, then that will discourage people from doing the best for themselves, which is to be as educated as possible," he added.

Green said too many non-resourceful students have migrated to Britain, and this should be stopped.

However, Professor Edward Acton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia, and a spokesman for Universities UK, said the Government's plans amounted to a 'hostile act'.

Professor David Wark, of Imperial College London, also warned against plans to weaken the link between study and work, and added: "If we get an opportunity to pick the cream of the crop, we shouldn't pass that up." (ANI)