Sir (South Holland and The
Deepings) (Con):...It is also important to
understand what this new White Paper is likely to lead to. There is
a real risk that the focus on low-skilled migrants, and certainly
on the one-year limit, may mask immigration figures. There is an
argument for seasonal workers. The seasonal agricultural workers
scheme is to be welcomed, and we should extend it to horticulture,
but those workers tend to go home. They do not settle and they are
not migrants; they are people who simply come to
work...
(St Austell and Newquay)
(Con):...We very much welcome the pilot scheme for
seasonal agricultural workers. It is good that the Government
acknowledge that this sector has a particular requirement for
seasonal migrant workers that we need to make sure we are able to
meet. The latest figures from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
local enterprise partnership state that there are about 7,000
migrant workers working in our agriculture and food sector in
Cornwall. Many farmers rely on migrant workers. My own
father-in-law, who at the age of 89 is still farming on the Isles
of Scilly, keeps making the point about how vital his seasonal
workers from eastern Europe are to making sure he can pick his
flowers and get them to market. It is vital for our farms that we
continue to be able to meet that seasonal requirement for labour.
The pilot scheme is therefore very much to be welcomed, as is the
Government’s acknowledgement of the need of that sector.
The agriculture sector is not the only one that relies heavily on
seasonal workers. In Cornwall, the tourism and hospitality
sector, which is even bigger than our food and agricultural
sector, has exactly the same requirement for seasonal workers
from overseas. They are needed to come to man the hotels, bars,
restaurants and the tourist resorts in Cornwall to make sure that
those businesses are able to continue to function and provide the
services for the many, many thousands of tourists who come to
Cornwall every year. So I urge the Government to look beyond
the agricultural sector and to other sectors that have a
particular requirement for seasonal workers. I welcome the steps
that have sought to address this need through the 12-month
low-skilled work visa, but I urge the Home Secretary and the
Government to look at this again, because we clearly have a
balance to strike here. At the moment, in this country, we do not
have an army of people waiting to take up these jobs...
(Stirling) (Con):...A
lot more must be done about seasonal workers. It cannot be said
often enough that a rigid system for seasonal workers will cause
untold damage to the rural economy and to sectors such as
hospitality and tourism, both of which are vital to my Stirling
constituency...
The Minister for Immigration (Caroline
Nokes):...The hon. Member for Bristol West (Thangam
Debbonaire) spoke about Refugee Action. She will know that I have a
great deal of time and respect for her and the issues she has
raised, and I hope very much to continue learning from her and
the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green); they often
come as a tag team to give me a very hard time, but they do so with
such charm and determination that I am sure we will continue to
engage effectively with them. In the same way, through our
engagement process we will continue to listen to businesses large
and small, sectors like the universities, the National Farmers Union, the Royal College of
Nursing and the CBI, which we have been doing to date, because of
course the conversation on immigration has not simply started over
the course of the last few weeks, but has been going for well over
a year...
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