UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced that migrant workers will face tougher tests to work in United Kingdom.

She pledged to use the flexibility built into the points-based system (PBS) to respond to changing economic circumstances - helping British workers through the hard times of the recession.

Three significant changes to support British workers and to be more selective about the migrants coming to the United Kingdom from outside the EEA were part of the announcement. From 1 April the Government will:

1. strengthen the resident labour market test for tier 2 skilled jobs so that employers must advertise jobs to resident workers through JobCentre Plus before they can bring in a worker from outside Europe;
2. use each shortage occupation list to trigger skills reviews that focus on up-skilling resident workers for these occupations, which will make the United Kingdom less dependent on migration for the future; and
3. tighten new criteria against which highly skilled migrants seeking entry to the United Kingdom are judged, by raising the qualifications and salary required for tier 1 of the Points Based System (PBS) to a Master's degree and a minimum salary of £20,000.

 It is not yet clear as to which sub-category of the Tier 1 the Master's degree rule is going to apply as there are different sub-categories under it.