TNAG-2629-FCO40-3820-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-National-(Overseas)-1992 — Page 74

A

- E.R.

ab to offer other countries as good a reciprocal scheme as we have now with

Australia:

i)

age group 18 to 25;

ii)

lasting up to a year as a maximum;

iii)

open to single people only;

iv)

participants require a good command of English;

v)

participants must be willing to seek and able to take work in UK

labour market;

vi)

participants must be coming to undertake only casual, part-time,

voluntary or short-term work;

10.

vii)

participants have access to labour market without further checks.

The fact that a participant had a job already lined up would be evidence of eligibility. However if this became a requirement, replacing items iv) and v), it would open up the possibility of exploitation of overseas workers trapped in jobs they did not like and who were unable to find better alternatives. This risk could be avoided by requiring that job placements be approved either by a Government or an independent agency. But this regulatory solution would be most unlikely to be attractive to Ministers. For these reasons we do not favour a requirement that a participant had a

job lined up before obtaining entry.

Scope of a youth mobility scheme

11. The existing working holidaymaker and BUNAC schemes would fit into a new youth mobility arrangement since both cater for short-term or casual work during a holiday taken by young English-speaking people. But there would be difficulties in a

unified scheme taking in other existing arrangements.