The government's new Immigration Bill is designed to "stop migrants using public services to which they are not entitled, reduce the pull factors that encourage people to come to the UK and make it easier to remove people who should not be here". It can be seen as a direct response to public concern about immigration, and the widely held belief that migrants in the UK are claiming benefits or using public services without contributing in return, adding to the pressure on schools and hospitals.
The bill is also part of a broader policy of creating a "hostile environment" for migrants in the UK in the belief that this is an effective means of encouraging them to leave, and that it is Britain's "generosity" to migrants that attracts them to the UK. The past year has already seen the refusal to increase asylum support levels in line with inflation, the removal of legal aid for almost all immigration cases, the tightening of immigration rules on long residence, and proposals to severely restrict access to healthcare and private housing for certain groups of migrants.
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