‘Circular migration’ for OFWs in UK proposed

MANILA, Philippines—The United Kingdom is proposing to allow Filipino skilled workers in the United Kingdom who are applying for UK citizenship to return to their home country without jeopardizing their application, the UK embassy here said in a news release.

The embassy cited a joint publication by the UK Border Agency and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which contained the plan.

The publication, entitled “International Challenges, International solutions; Managing the movement of people and goods,” published an international action plan to strengthen the UK’s partnerships with agencies of other countries to further improve its migration policies.

“We have proposed a plan to allow the source countries a chance to benefit from its skilled workers through ‘circular migration’ which will basically allow workers applying for citizenship to return to their source country and use their skills and expertise to benefit their source country. That way, they will have a chance to take what they learned while working in the UK and bring back their new skills to benefit their source country before they return to the UK to continue their path to citizenship,” explained James Sharp, the UK Border Agency’s Regional Director for Asia Pacific.

“We want our migration policies to benefit not only the UK but also the source countries, particularly the developing countries such as the Philippines,” he said.

Sharp said some 200,000 to 300,000 Filipinos live in the UK today, many of whom are employed in the health care sector.

“It would be beneficial for the Philippines if [Filipino] nurses and doctors working in the UK would be allowed to go back to the Philippines for a number of years without affecting their application for UK citizenship,” he added. - INQUIRER.net, March 07, 2010