British Prime Minister David Cameron is confronting major decisions this week on immigration policy, the European refugee crisis and Britain’s membership in the European Union. The BBC reports,

Mr Cameron wants to prevent migrants from other EU nations from claiming tax credits – income supplements paid to those in low-paid work – for four years, which he says will help reduce high levels of immigration to the UK….

But the idea is facing resistance from Central European nations, who view it as discriminatory towards their citizens.

A BBC analysis explains that Cameron is also considering other ideas — which could apply to the rest of the EU as well — aimed at reducing immigration “pull factors” (incentives to immigrate).

Debate over Cameron’s proposal centers largely around Britain’s sovereign control of its own borders, as well as its membership in the EU, which mandates open borders between member countries.

Not stated in the BBC analysis, but prominent in a report at The Telegraph, is the context of Europe’s refugee crisis. The Prime Minister’s proposal is presented there as “a plan to take control of the migrant flow from Europe,” and an “immediate block on benefit payments to EU migrants as the price for Britain voting to stay in the EU.” The Telegraph report makes note of concurrent immigration-related violence in Dover as well as in Stockholm, Sweden.

Stuart Rose, chair of a British group opposing the Prime Minister’s proposals, dismissed the proposal’s likely effectiveness but not the urgency of the situation. Quoted in The Independent, Lord Rose reportedly said,

Migration is one of the great things that is happening in the world today. It’s an event or it is a phenomenon worldwide which is not just a UK issue, it’s a worldwide issue.

Politicians are going to have to grapple with that. Immigration isn’t going to go away if we were outside the EU. This is something we have got to deal with.

It’s a crisis, it’s a European crisis and it’s a world crisis. And it’s a terrifying crisis.