Migration cap 'may not be enough'

The proposed immigration cap could affect fewer than one in 100 migrants entering the UK, a report has revealed.

The government will need to examine other routes, including international students and those joining family members in the UK, if it is to fulfil its pledge to cut net migration from 196,000 to tens of thousands by 2015, the study by the Commons home affairs select committee found.

But committee chairman Keith Vaz said: "We were particularly concerned about the potential effect on international students of a reduction in immigration, seeing as they account for around 25 per cent of total long-term immigration each year. Although the government has not yet unveiled plans for reform of student immigration, our evidence underlined the crucial importance of international students to the cultural and intellectual life, as well as the finances, of UK educational institutions."

Meanwhile, the report added: "We note the concerns, expressed to us by eight Nobel prize-winners in science, about the potentially negative effect of the cap on the UK's position of international excellence in science and engineering.

"We consider it totally illogical that professional sports people should be exempted from the cap but elite international scientists are not."