UK visa figures are a big deal for May, Indians

Indians have long been at the heart of the sensitive discourse of immigration in Britain — from Enoch Powell’s infamous “rivers of blood speech”, to plans to impose “visa bonds”, to the “Go Home” vans driven around parts of London.

For most of the time, they have been seen in a negative light.

For the first time, official figures released on Thursday paint a rather different picture of visiting Indians in recent years: the vast majority (97%) – including students – return before their visas expire, busting some myths.

The figures not only brought cheer in Indian quarters, but also put Prime Minister Theresa May in the dock, who, as home secretary and now as premier, used the “overstayers” card to make it tough for Indian and other non-European Union students to come to Britain, leading to a major drop.

The good news for Indian visitors and students, however, needs to be tempered with the fact that some Indian citizens continue to be caught abusing the visa system, working illegally or entering into sham marriages or indulging in other abuse.

The new figures have already enthused sections of the Indian community to demand improvement of the visa offer, but this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Nor is it likely that the May government brings back the poststudy work visa that was popular among Indian students (it was closed in 2012).

For now, the hope is that the figures will mute some of the negative voices about India and Indians in the discourse of immigration, while the government faces more pressure to stop considering non-EU students as migrants.

May’s critics rounded on her after figures from the Office for National Statistics and Home Office showed that 97% of international students return after completing their studies.

Home secretary Amber Rudd, who has been following the May doctrine and promised new curbs on non-EU students and professionals, has tasked the Migration Advisory Committee to report on the impact of international students.

It emerges that the number of overstayers is just a fraction of the numbers the government previously thought. They have been using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. JAMES MCGRORY, pro-EU group Open Britain