The points based system isn't by any means terrible, but it is quite complicated.
Australia spends a huge amount of money on immigration prevention (largely due to the
offshore detention program), and then there are a huge number of different Visas you
need for different things. (
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Why does it need to be that complicated? I'm a believe in a small government (as small as possible whilst still giving us everything we need). How big is the department that sorts out who can live here and who cannot going to be?
- Will an EU Citizen living in the UK now, who goes away for 6 months, be allowed to return?
- Will an EU Citizen be allowed to keep his UK born children here?
- Will an EU Citizen be allowed to keep his non-UK born children here?
- Will an EU Citizen who marries a British citizen, takes his family abroad for 3 years, then returns to the UK, be allowed to come with them?
- Will an EU Citizen be allowed to bring his foreign wife to the UK, if he earns enough money?
10% of the population in the UK are not British, and 14% of the population were not born here. 3 million people live here are EU Citizens. There are far too many fringe cases, to run immigration by looking at each case individually.
Now to be fair, Australias immigrant population far exceeds are own as a percentage (27% vs 15%)
But why does it have to be this complicated? We are putting off EU Doctors and Nurses, and making them want to leave.
Why not keep "free" movement, but create a tax system that runs the immigration system for us.