. E.R.
12
The au pair scheme could be accommodated within a unified youth mobility
provision, if participants were coming to the UK in the context of an extended holiday
and their knowledge of English was such that they could easily take other jobs if they
wanted to. However, one of the main justifications of the au pair scheme is to allow
non-English speakers to learn or improve their English. This points to a separate au-pair
scheme under which participants come in clearly designated as non-workers. The
current work on revising the format of the Immigration Rules proposes that their status
as language students rather than workers should be spelled out. To blur the distinction
between au pairs and domestic workers would be unacceptable.
13. The seasonal agricultural workers' scheme and the concession for volunteers are
subject to tighter criteria than suggested for the unified youth mobility scheme above.
Such work is in any event unlikely to be the first choice of those with free access to the
labour market. For these reasons there is a good case for continuing these two schemes
as separate from any youth mobility scheme both for the benefit of UK agriculture and
charities. Maintaining them as separate schemes would also benefit young people from
countries with which we would be unlikely to conclude more open-ended youth mobility
agreements and, in the case of volunteers, benefit overseas nationals over 25 years old
who may well have a valuable contribution to make. Moreover, the seasonal agricultural
workers' scheme arguably falls outside the scope of youth exchange schemes since it is
directed to helping a specific commercial sector and is needed whether we have youth
mobility schemes or not. (It is possible that we could end up by agreeing with our EC
partners in any moves towards harmonizing work permit policies to limit seasonal
agricultural workers to nationals of countries with which we had association agreements
which committed Member States to considering favourable terms for labour mobility.)
14. Finally, while the AIFS scheme might be subsumed partly by a more open
reciprocal working holidays scheme with the USA and partly by an extension of the au pair scheme, the UK/US Development Programme and IAESTE look more like TWES
schemes if they were to be rationalized.
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