In April of this year (2011) the government introduced one of its “flagship” immigration policies – a cap on skilled labour immigration from outside the EU. The cap was the subject of heated debate but – surprisingly to many – has, so far, been substantially undersubscribed.

Migrants Rights

In the first five  months of the cap, which releases a limited number of “Certificates of Sponsorship” (CoS) to employers of non-EU workers on a monthly basis, a total of 10,200 CoS (to the end of August 2011) were made available, but only 4,323 – fewer than half – were taken up by employers. Figure 1 shows the monthly new CoS allocations and take-up.