BY  Tosin Oyediran

The UK government has banned international recruitment for social care roles and announced a dramatic cutback on so-called “low-skilled migration,” declaring that “skilled must mean skilled.”

The hardline move, detailed in the new 82-page Immigration White Paper released Monday, forms the backbone of the most significant immigration reset in a generation.

“We will close social care visas to new overseas applications,” the Home Office stated.

“This route has been exploited and overused in ways that damage public confidence and do not support long-term workforce sustainability.”

BY Mia Gindis and Nathan Risser

Kristin Herman and her partner had been planning a European getaway with stops in Paris and Rome, but with the US economy suddenly wobbling, the couple instead drove to Oregon’s nearby redwood forests and Cannon Beach — even camping some nights to save on hotels.

“It didn’t feel like the right time to spend so much money,” said Herman, a 37-year-old who lives in Portland and works as an educator at Academized.com. “Especially when groceries and rent got more expensive as well.”

As President Donald Trump’s global trade war rattles consumer confidence and threatens to reignite inflation, US travelers are increasingly opting for road trips over flights. About 39.4 million Americans will drive this Memorial Day weekend, up 3.1% from last year and the most in 20 years, according to the American Automobile Association. Some 3.61 million people plan to fly, only a 1.7% gain.

Adding to the allure of road trips, oil prices have dropped to near a four-year low, pushing down gasoline costs. The national average pump price was about $3.14 a gallon Sunday, almost 50 cents a gallon cheaper than a year earlier, AAA data show. US gasoline prices will remain at roughly that level in the second and third quarter, the Energy Information Administration projects.

Meanwhile, domestic flights are 2% more expensive this Memorial Day weekend compared to the same period last year, with an average round-trip ticket costing $850, the AAA said. That’s being driven partly by bargain airlines moving upscale and raising fares. Concerns surrounding airplane safety in light of a few high-profile incidents are also giving travelers pause. The turmoil has led several US airlines to withdraw their full-year earnings forecasts.

Beyond the pricing factors, recent stock market volatility pushed nearly 68% of travelers to alter their vacation plans, from paying upfront to counteract a weakening dollar to canceling altogether, data from travel tech company Histoury shows.

For Julie Brinkman, Americans’ rapidly changing travel plans remind her of the shift during the sweeping flight restrictions and lockdowns to fight Covid-19 in March 2020. Travelers are increasingly opting for destinations like the Gulf Coast, Gold Coast and Smoky Mountains over overseas markets, said Brinkman, chief executive officer of Beyond, a revenue manager for vacation rentals.

“People still want to take trips, but those trips might be closer to home,” Brinkman said. “They’re also waiting longer to book. They need to know that they have job security, that they’re able to fund their trip.”

Energy research firm Wood Mackenzie now sees US jet fuel demand falling 0.7% in 2025, compared to the 1.1% advance it projected at the start of the year. The revision accounts for diminished travel spending as consumers sour on the Trump administration’s economic stewardship, said Austin Lin, an analyst for the firm.

In the meantime, jet fuel demand is still at the highest since 2019 for this time of year on a four-week-average basis, according to US government data.

“There’s an emotional component to the market,” Lin said. Even if the trade war is resolved quickly, the memory of markets’ sudden plunge will keep a lid on discretionary spending, he said.

The richest Americans, who saw their wealth shrink in the recent stock market slide, also are reshaping vacation plans. Travel Beyond — which specializes in trips that average $22,000 per person and feature exotic locales ranging from the Arctic to Africa — saw inquiries in March fall 20% from a year earlier, followed by a 14% drop in April.

So far, at least one client has explicitly cited economic uncertainty in canceling an upcoming trip, while others are adjusting departure dates to capture off-peak prices, according to Kayla Hoyles, a travel adviser at the Minnesota-based firm.

For Oregonian traveler Herman, financial constraints are limiting her Memorial Day weekend plans to either a day trip or nothing at all. Even though Trump’s tariffs aren’t yet showing up in prices, she says she’s already stressed about living costs.

“It feels like we’re all being squeezed from every angle,” Herman said. “And it makes it harder to plan anything long-term.”

(Updates gasoline prices in fourth paragraph, adds jet fuel demand figures in ninth paragraph)

BY  Adekunle Sulaimon

Following the release of the United Kingdom Immigration White Paper on Monday, the British High Commission in Nigeria has issued a formal statement addressing the potential implications and reaffirming the UK’s relationship with Nigeria.

A spokesperson for the British High Commission said the UK values its strong, long-standing ties with Nigeria, highlighting the continued popularity of the UK as a destination for Nigerians seeking opportunities to work, study, visit, and settle.

The spokesperson explained that the newly released White Paper outlines planned reforms to the UK’s legal migration system. The reforms aim to restore order, control, and fairness, while also reducing net migration and supporting economic growth.

According to the High Commission, the implementation of these changes will be gradual, and the UK government intends to consult with relevant partners in Nigeria’s federal government once further details become available.

Key Points

• British businesses are warning the U.K. government that plans to tighten immigration rules on foreign workers will lead to labor shortages and could dent economic growth.
• The British government on Monday announced plans to tighten the rules on who can come to the U.K. to work, study and live.
• Sectors that are traditionally reliant on immigrant workers, such as health and social care, warn the rule changes will exacerbate labor shortages already present in the labor market.

British businesses are warning the U.K. government that plans to tighten immigration rules on foreign workers — and to instead train and recruit more British personnel — will lead to labor shortages in key sectors.

The British government on Monday announced plans to cut migration to the U.K., tightening the rules on who can come to work, study and live in the country.

The proposals raise English-language requirements for migrants, as well as the skills and level of education they need to obtain work visas. The government also said migrant workers would have to live in the U.K. for 10 years in the country before they could apply to stay indefinitely.

The government said its new proposals “back British workers over cheap overseas labour” and would link migration policy with skills to boost economic growth.

But businesses fear that Brits can’t — or won’t — fill the gap created by likely worker and skills shortages, particularly in sectors traditionally heavily-reliant on migrant staff, such as health and social care.

Can Brits fill the gap?

It was already a “struggle” to recruit British workers and was “very, very unusual” to attract home-grown workers into the social care sector, one care home manager in the South of England told CNBC.

“It’s been years, a good couple of years that we haven’t had any British applicants, English applicants,” the care home manager, who could only speak anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter, told CNBC on Tuesday.

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“I hear lots of things like, you know, Morrison’s [supermarket] pay more, McDonald’s pay more. You hear all those comments out in the community. The pay isn’t great for care, so it is a struggle,” the source said.

“I would say probably 70% of our workforce on the care team are from India. Without those girls, our residents … wouldn’t have had anyone to look after them …What do you put in place [to fill that workforce]? You can’t make people work. You can’t make people look after these residents.”

The government has come under increasing pressure to tackle the thorny issue of immigration amid record migration figures. The strong performance of Nigel Farage’s right wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party in opinion polls and in recent English local elections has increased the need for the government to act quickly, however.

Announcing the plans Monday, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the strategy “will finally take back control of our borders and close the book on a squalid chapter for our politics, our economy, and our country.”

He added that immigration reforms would end what the government described as the country’s “failed experiment in open borders” that saw migration soar to almost one million a year, noting it would ensure that “people coming here earn the right to stay in the country.”

Migration pressures

The government said in its blueprint on immigration that steep increases in net migration in recent years had been caused by “a big increase in overseas recruitment including a shift towards lower-skilled migration, with a substantial increase in worker visas issued below degree level.”

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For example, it said it had seen a sharp increase in the number of people arriving via the health and social care visa route to work in below degree-level jobs, from 37,000 in 2022 to 108,000 in 2023.

Net migration hit a record high of 906,000 in the year to June 2023, but fell in subsequent twelve months to 728,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The government said Monday that it will now “end overseas recruitment for social care visas” although visa extensions would be permitted until 2028.

Care England, which represents independent social care providers, warn that the immigration plans could have “serious consequences for a sector already under immense pressure.” It noted that the care industry currently has 131,000 vacancies.

“Let’s be clear – this decision is not a solution,” Care England’s Chief Executive Martin Green said responding to the government’s plans Monday.

“It is a political gesture that treats the symptoms but ignores the disease. Rather than investing in the sector and solving the recruitment crisis, the Government is closing the door on one of the only workforce pipelines still functioning. Social care is not low-skilled work. It is high-skill, low-pay work that deserves respect, proper recognition, and meaningful investment.”

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Green said, “While concerns around exploitation must be addressed, the proposed solution – ending overseas recruitment entirely – removes a vital workforce supply without establishing a viable domestic alternative.”

‘Home-grown talent’

Business industry leaders say the move to boosting training and skills among British workers is welcome, but warned that labor shortages were likely to become more acute.

“Employers are clear: boosting training in the U.K. is essential, but so is a controlled, affordable and responsive immigration system that keeps investment flowing to the U.K.,” the U.K.’s Recruitment and Employment Confederation Chief Executive Nick Carberry commented Monday.

Businesses will now have to carefully consider the detail of proposals to limit visas for skilled jobs below degree level, the Confederation of British Industry said.

“Labour shortages can’t be solved by training alone. With the U.K.’s workforce set to shrink in the future as our population ages, it’s more important than ever that we support the business investment needed to underpin tech adoption and training,” Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI’s chief executive, noted.

Businesses are keen to unlock more “home-grown talent,” said Jane Gratton, deputy director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce.

“However, it’s vital that the pace of change in the immigration system does not cut off access to global talent before the U.K.’s wider labour market problems are properly addressed,” Gratton noted.

Firms need access to the right skills to grow the economy, she said, and for some businesses that will include bringing people from outside the U.K.

“This is usually as a last resort when they have tried all they can to recruit from the local labour market,” Gratton said

By Andrew Macaskill and Alistair Smout

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - The British government is planning to make some immigrants living in the country wait up to five years longer to qualify for permanent settlement under Prime Minister Keir Starmer's plans to cut immigration numbers. The government announced migration reforms on Monday which would, among other measures, double the amount of time required before a person automatically qualifies for the right to stay in Britain or can apply for citizenship, from five to 10 years.

It had not been immediately clear whether the rule change would apply to those already living in Britain, or for people just moving to the country and due to start the process.

Government officials said on Thursday that while those who arrived on a family visa or as a dependent would retain the five-year route, interior minister Yvette Cooper wanted the longer timeframe to apply to everyone else. One law firm, Farrer&Co, said the change may also not apply to migrants from the European Union who applied for settled status after Brexit, because their treatment was agreed as part of Britain's departure from the bloc in 2020. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Report This Ad

A spokesman for Starmer said that the migration plans would be consulted on before any changes are introduced. Immigration has long been one of the most important issues for voters in Britain. Controlling the number of arrivals was a key factor in the 2016 vote to leave the EU, yet net arrivals hit record levels after it left the bloc, helping to boost Nigel Farage's right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party. Starmer, in setting out proposals to reduce immigration, has been heavily criticised by some in his own party and beyond after he warned that Britain risked becoming "an island of strangers" and said immigration had run out of control. His language has drawn parallels to a former right-wing politician Enoch Powell who warned in a now-infamous 1968 "Rivers of Blood" speech that Britons would find themselves "strangers in their own country" - a speech that is widely regarded as one of the most divisive in modern British politics.

Starmer's spokesperson said he completely rejected the comparison, adding that migrants had made a massive contribution to Britain but that numbers needed to be controlled. Some Labour members of parliament have also raised concerns about the possibility of longer qualifying periods applying to people already in Britain. Florence Eshalomi, a Labour member of parliament who chairs the Commons housing, communities and local government committee, said she had been contacted by several constituents, who were working towards getting permanent settlement in Britain. She said one was now considering leaving.

BY Mauricio Alencar

Keir Starmer’s government is reportedly looking to introduce a special visa for foreign investors in an attempt to reverse the tide of millionaires leaving the UK.

Officials are at the early stages of drawing up a visa which would provide an olive branch to wealthy businessmen keen to fund in areas such as artificial intelligence and clean energy, according to a report in Bloomberg. 

The new visa would come as part of a string of immigration reforms aimed at boosting integration and turning the UK into a high-skill, high-wage economy. 

In its white paper unveiled on Monday, the government said overseas businesses would be able to send twice as many workers to the UK as previously. 

Under current rules, a company can send up to five senior employees to work in the UK for three years as part of the Expansion Worker route.

The Labour government also revealed plans to increase the number of people arriving on “very high talent routes” via specialised visas for entrepreneurs and research interns working in artificial intelligence, which could drive up the number of millionaires in the UK.

The white paper said it wished to allow UK firms to compete to attract a “highly prized cohort” of business leaders amid “fierce” competition across the global economy.

This came despite reforms aimed at radically cutting net migration levels from a peak of 900,000 in the year to June 2023. 

Several government departments involved in boosting the economy and curbing immigration agreed attracting talent and influential businessmen was key to UK growth, according to Bloomberg reports.

Read more

CMA handed ‘strategic steer’ as government pushes pro-growth agenda

But the government’s tax regime has come under fire for repelling investors, with a report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) suggesting that the removal of tax exemptions for non-domiciled residents could cost the UK government up to £12.2bn in fewer tax receipts due to the departure of wealthy individuals. 

Chancellor Reeves has defended policies targeted at non-doms, claiming that the scheme was unfair and has been replaced with a more “internationally competitive residence-based system” for millionaires. 

Millionaires leaving

City AM revealed last month one of the most high profile business leaders living in London – Goldman Sachs banker Richard Gnodde – was leaving Britain, following the likes of Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris out the exit.

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Milan has emerged as an alternative to London as investors pay a flat tax rate to avoid duties on other earnings while Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides is set to make a visit to London to trumpet up the country’s softer tax regime on the wealthy. 

Research by the Adam Smith Institute said last month that the UK is expected to lose the greatest proportion of millionaires of any country by 2028. 

It also said that scrapping the non-doms scheme could cost the UK economy more than £100bn in the next ten years. 

Writing for City AM, Labour voter and British billionaire John Caudwelsaid reforms to tax regimes represented bad policymaking. 

“I’ve long called for a better tax system that encourages investment and rewards those who stay and build here. That’s not about giving the wealthy a break, it’s about giving Britain a boost,” Caudwell wrote. 

“The current reforms to the non-dom regime may be politically popular, but they risk sending the wrong signal. We must be a country that welcomes wealth creators and holds them to high standards rather than driving them away.”

By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel

Summary

• Trump order targeted children of certain immigrants
• Three judges issued orders blocking policy nationwide
• Administration challenges nationwide injunctions

WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is poised on Thursday to consider Donald Trump's attempt to broadly enforce his executive order to limit birthright citizenship, a move that would affect thousands of babies born each year as the Republican president seeks a major shift in how the U.S. Constitution has long been understood.
The justices are scheduled to hear arguments on the administration's emergency request to scale back injunctions issued by federal judges in Maryland, Washington and Massachusetts blocking Trump's directive nationwide. The judges found Trump's order likely violates citizenship language in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.

BY Damilola Aina

Passengers who boarded an Air Peace Lagos–Abuja flight were thrown into panic on Wednesday following conflicting reports from airline officials over a ‘fault’ that delayed their departure by nearly two hours.

A viral video on social media showed visibly distressed passengers confronting airline staff inside the aircraft, demanding a replacement plane and expressing distrust in the safety of the one they were in at the time.

In the viral video, a passenger aggressively appeals for a flight change, while others chorus their concerns anxiously. Initial information from the cockpit indicated that a technical issue had been detected and was being resolved by engineers.

However, confusion erupted when another cabin crew member later attributed the delay to a minor fault in the Public Address System, stating it had been fixed and that the aircraft was cleared for takeoff.

Passengers, already agitated by the delay, became more unsettled by the contradictory explanations.

A passenger who travelled in the aircraft, Chinwe Okafor, gave an insight about the situation in a Facebook post. “My flight from Lagos to Abuja was scheduled for 1:40 pm. We boarded on time, but shortly after, we were informed of a technical fault,” she stated.

She further noted that “later, someone else told us it was just a microphone issue. Imagine the confusion. First, it was a technical fault. Then, just a microphone. How do you expect people to feel safe with that kind of inconsistency?”

Okafor said passengers were eventually informed that another aircraft would be sent to pick them up, but after close to an additional hour of waiting, the same aircraft was declared airworthy and ready for departure.

Following the latest announcement, Okafor added that several passengers reportedly disembarked, citing safety concerns.

“Some of us stayed behind, summoning enough courage to complete the trip, Risky,” she added

She, however, called for transparency and professionalism, as other passengers demanded clearer communication from the airline in future incidents.

Responding to the incident, Air Peace Corporate Communications Officer, Osifo-Whiskey Efe, confirmed the delay but added that there was no cause for panic.

He said, “It was just a minor issue with the PAS (Public Address System), honestly nothing serious. But because at Air Peace we prioritise safety, we initially considered deploying another aircraft. But the engineer resolved the issue quickly, and there was no safety risk at any time.”

He assured passengers that the airline would never operate a flight if any fault posed a safety concern.

The United States (U.S) Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments on President Donald TrumpPresident Donald Trump’s Executive Order concerning birthright citizenship.

Hundreds of Nigerians who have sought citizenship through that means, could be affected.

The Court is expected to deliver its ruling by the end of June, though a quicker decision remains a possibility.

The Executive Order which took effect upon Trump’s resumption in office in January, seeks to deny citizenship to children born on American soil to parents who are in the country unlawfully or on a temporary basis.

A crucial question underpinning this case is whether judges have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions that would effectively prevent Trump’s executive orders from being enacted.

Within hours of assuming office as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders, one of which sparked intense debate and legal challenges.

Immigration advocacy groups swiftly took legal action, with a wave of lawsuits in response to the contentious measure.

It guarantees citizenship to “all persons born or naturalised in the United States,” a clause historically interpreted as conferring automatic citizenship upon nearly all children born on American soil.
Over the years, this broad interpretation has seen many foreign nationals, including Nigerians with sufficient means, choosing to give birth in the US to secure American citizenship for their children.

Government agencies will no longer issue passports, citizenship certificates, or related documents to children born in the U.S whose mothers entered or remained in the country illegally or were on temporary visas.
Children whose fathers are neither U.S citizens nor legal permanent residents will also be excluded from automatic citizenship.

Under the new framework, for a child born in the U.S to qualify as an American citizen, at least one parent must be either a citizen or a green card holder, which is permanent legal residency.

The move marks a dramatic shift in longstanding interpretations of the 14th Amendment, with legal experts predicting an extended courtroom battle over its implications.

Starting June 1, 2025, citizens from five South American countries will be able to enter China without a visa for short stays, marking a significant advancement in the strengthening of ties between China and Latin America.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, who announced the policy shift, said the move reflects China’s commitment to greater openness and international cooperation.

He added that additional steps will be taken to further ease travel between China and other countries.

Here are the five countries eligible for visa-free entry to China:

1. Argentina

2. Brazil

3. Chile

4. Peru

5. Uruguay

The visa exemption will be in effect from June 1, 2025, to May 31, 2026. During this period, citizens of these countries can stay in China for up to 30 days for purposes such as tourism, business, visiting family or friends, cultural exchange, or transit. 

This new policy reflects China’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its relationship with Latin America, fostering increased travel, trade, and cultural exchange.