What lies for Indian Doctors in the UK

Although the EU has been blowing the trumpet since long now, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown's statement that he is pledged to curb the entry of doctors and other professionals from outside Europe into the UK, as a new crackdown on immigration, is a move likely to adversely impact thousands of Indians. this came as the Labour government signaled a major shift in its immgration policy, the Prime Minister vowed to "stem rising tide of migration" and his government plans to restrict the points based system for determining which migrants can work in Britain. "One of the reasons that immigration will fall is the tightening of the new points system and it will continue to tighten over the next few months," Brown told theDaily Mail in an interview ahead of a major speech on immigration on Thursday.

Even as insisting that immigration had been a source of "economic, social and cultural strength" for Britain, Brown said the points-based system, introduced last year to control the entry of non-EU citizens to the UK by grading incomers on the skills they can offer the country, would be further toughened up.

In a major policy change, Brown is expected to announce that the door is being closed to non-EU hospital consultants, civil engineers, aircraft engineers and ship's officers, the report said. "I know people worry about whether immigration undermines their wages and the job prospects of their children and they also worry about whether they will get a decent home for their families," he underlined.

At times when the global leaders and experts have warned against the use of protectionist policies during recession, such a move seems to be naive and also promotes restrictions widening the already existent rift among the migrants and the natives. Britain should realise that it has one of the largest migrant diaspora population world over, but no wonder their eyes are closed and blinded with local politics wooing applause for all the wrong decisions and misguiding public as to what stand to benefit at large.