OCTOBER 9, 2011, 7:00 P.M. ET.

U.K. to Restrict Family Immigration

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron will announce steps on Monday to make it harder for immigrants to bring their families into Britain, in a further sign of how the U.K. is tightening rules to decrease immigration after more than a decade of increasing numbers.

Measures the government is looking at include increasing the amount of income immigrants must have before family members are allowed to join the immigrants, and looking at ways to make sure that family immigrants are in a genuine relationship with their partners.

The government also will look at ways to criminalize forced marriages.

"People do want to move to different countries to be with loved ones, we all understand this human instinct," Mr. Cameron will say in a speech, according to extracts.

"But we need to make sure—for their sake as well as ours—that those who come through this route are genuinely coming for family reasons."

Mr. Cameron's government has set a targeted cap on the number of immigrants from outside the European Union who are allowed into the country. It has proved hard, however, to get the numbers below that level, meaning that the government has been forced to look for ways to bring immigration down.

In 2010, family migration accounted for almost one-fifth of total non-EU immigration to the U.K., with nearly 50,000 visas granted to family members of British citizens and those with permanent residence in the country.

Mr. Cameron will say that around 70% of those looking to move family into Britain from abroad had post-tax earnings of less than £20,000 ($31,000) a year, which creates the "risk that the migrants and their family will become a significant burden on the welfare system and the taxpayer."

The government will look at ways to make it harder for the family of poorer migrants to enter the U.K., including whether posting a financial bond would be appropriate before allowing family to enter Britain.

The government will also make migrants wait longer when they want to bring over a partner, to show "they really are in a genuine relationship before they can get settlement," and toughen the tests used by officials to see whether a relationship is genuine, Mr. Cameron will say.

Mr. Cameron will also announce the government is looking at ways to criminalize forced marriages, a practice sometimes used in some Asian cultures that the British leader compares to slavery. The move to make illegal such cultural practices is a sign that Mr. Cameron is acting on his promise early this year to reject multiculturalism.

Countries across Europe are increasingly erecting barriers to immigrants, amid rising unemployment and increased intolerance of mass immigration.

For Mr. Cameron, however, the policies are not without risk. Businesses often complain tough immigration rules are stopping talent coming into Britain, while the announcements will likely anger his coalition Liberal Democrat Party, whose lawmakers have often complained about such policies.

Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com

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