Migrants will need to speak and understand English to an A-level standard to work in Britain, under new plans announced by Shabana Mahmood.
Foreign nationals who want to move to the UK will have to pass a Home Office-accredited written and oral test to prove they can speak, listen, read and write to a higher level than before.
The new rules, which take effect from January, will mean migrants have to express themselves “fluently and spontaneously” and speak “flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes”.
Previously, they were only required to hold conversations “regularly encountered in work, school or leisure” and deal with situations “likely to arise while travelling” and “produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest”.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “This country has always welcomed those who come to this country and contribute.
“But it is unacceptable for migrants to come here without learning our language, unable to contribute to our national life.
“If you come to this country, you must learn our language and play your part.”
Under new changes outlined on Tuesday, foreign students will also have less time to find a job in the UK before they are ordered to leave.
And the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC), which is paid by employers sponsoring skilled foreign workers and reinvested in training the domestic workforce, is being hiked by 32%.
The Home Office said this is the first increase since 2017.
Foreign students will also have to show they can financially support themselves under the new Home Office plans.
Ministers are under intense pressure to reduce net migration from 431,000, though this is down from a record high of 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
Labour wants to force more businesses to hire British workers and end their reliance on cheaper foreign labour in a bid to slash net migration.
Under the Government’s plans, migrants will only be able to work in the UK if it is graduate-level or above.
And the Migration Advisory Committee told Ms Mahmood that barring migrants who have moved to the UK to fill a role on the temporary shortage list will make international recruitment less attractive to both employers and workers.
Among the 82 occupations are artists, authors, actors and entertainers, dancers and choreographers, and photographers.
They are listed alongside human resources officers and health and safety managers.
Bricklayers, welders, carpenters, IT staff, fashion designers and civil engineers are also included.
The MAC chose these initial roles based on their contribution to the eight “growth-driving” sectors in the Government’s industrial strategy – including defence, life sciences and creative industries – and building infrastructure.
Each will be screened before the MAC drafts a final list in a process due to end in July next year.
In its report to Ms Mahmood, the MAC said: “A fixed-length visa might add a greater incentive for employers to utilise the domestic workforce as a longer-term and more stable solution than hiring overseas workers.”
The Government’s migration tsar also said preventing a path to settlement could ensure foreign nationals become “overwhelmingly fiscally positive”.
And time-limited visas would drive down net migration as more people will leave the UK.
The MAC told Ms Mahmood: “It is also possible that having no route to settlement would make the TSL less attractive to migrants and employers.”
Companies will only be able to recruit from abroad if they draw up plans to train up British workers.
They will be given between 18 months to three years before they are barred from recruiting migrant workers.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has distanced himself from Tory promises to slash net migration to the “tens of thousands”
Mr Johnson said: “Did you ever hear me saying that during the Brexit campaign? The answer is: No you didn’t,” he said. “My mandate was to take back control, and that’s what I did.”
Calling for “a period of assimilation and acculturalisation”, Mr Johnson added: “We should stop being mealy-mouthed about what people must do when they come to this country. If you go to the United States of America, you’ve got to become American.
“When I was running London, it was disgraceful that there were parts of London where, in the Bangladeshi community or wherever, people would be second or third-generation people not speaking English.
“There should be a much, much higher insistence on conformity to our basic values. If people are going to win first prize in the lottery of life by coming to live in this country, and they get a British passport, then they should become British and they should be proud of it.”
Asked if we should have net “zero migration”, as Mr Farage has suggested, Mr Johnson replied: “I think that there will be some areas where you’re going to need skills and others where you are going to have to argue much more strongly.
“I think one of the great issues with Brexit, and one of the reasons I was in favour of it, was because I thought that we’d spent far too much time on the Ponzi scheme of mass immigration and not on skilling up people in this country. The problem we had with the back end of Covid though was that we couldn’t see the numbers. We were flying blind.”
The former Tory PM also suggested that the public had forgotten “what it was actually like” in that immediate post-pandemic period.
He added: “Every single government department was saying that they couldn’t be sure that the crops were going to be picked in the fields, or the pigs were going to be slaughtered in time for the pigs in blankets for Christmas. Or the fuel stations. Do you remember this?”
