Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders in the UK will be exempt from a proposal to double the qualifying period for settlement to ten years from 2027. But they will also be facing tougher English requirements in return.

On Monday, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood laid out an immigration overhaul under which those on work visas would no longer automatically gain permanent residency after five years. Refugees who arrive illegally would face a wait for 20 years, or 30 if they arrived in a small boat.

But Hong Kong migrants holding the BN(O) visa would still face a tighter B2 English level language requirement and criminal record checks under the new rules, and must also hold no government debt. Migrant workers earning at least £50,000 (HK$530,000) per year – including doctors, nurses and teachers – will only have to wait five years. Those earning above £125,000 (HK$1.31 million) will be able to apply for settlement after three years.

“[E]arned settlement institutes a new paradigm in our migration system, long overdue,” Mahmood told parliament on Monday. “That one of our greatest rights that we can offer now depends upon a contribution made and responsibilities met. The right to live in this country forever must now be earned. It will no longer be automatic.”

Australian prime minister Albanese has told UK’s PM Andy Burnham he is looking at changing rules for British backpackers in Australia, after an increase in the number of travellers visiting popular hotspots such as Sydney.

Backpackers had previously been required to do about three months of regional work as part of visa conditions to help with the country’s work shortages in some occupations. But under the free trade agreement signed under Boris Johnson, Britons do not have to undertake the rural work that many other nationalities do as a condition of their visas. It also extended the maximum period for the visa to three years and the age limit to 35.

Albanese, who met Burnham on Monday evening at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in the Caribbean, told reporters he wanted to discuss changing the agreement between the UK and Australia that removes a regional work requirement for British travellers. The Australian government has said the changes have led to traveller numbers more than doubling, from 40,000 two years ago to 87,000 last year, the majority concentrated in Sydney and beachside suburbs. The easing of visa restrictions also applies to Australians coming to the UK but fewer than 10,000 came last year.

Albanese told the Australian parliament that the numbers of Britons arriving at a small destination was putting pressure on the local workforce. Burnham confirmed to reporters that he was meeting Albanese but declined to comment on any potential changes.

Dozens of high schools across France were blockaded again on Monday as the government braced for another tense week of protests over school conditions and the high cost of living.

The protests come amid warnings that weeks without lessons are putting some pupils’ school year and final exams at risk. As children returned after the two-week school holiday, students’ unions ignored President Macron’s call to end the lycée blockades, which have been running since September and have prompted one of the biggest protest movements and social crises of his presidency.

From early morning in Paris and its suburbs, as well as in cities including Lille, Toulouse and Marseille, schoolchildren demanding more replacement teachers and repairs to buildings barricaded school entrances with wheelie bins. Police officers outside some schools attempted to drag the bins away and made arrests.

University students’ unions were planning additional barricades at faculties on Tuesday. Trade unions have called for a large-scale strike on Thursday, with rail workers, teachers and private-sector employees planning to join demonstrations in cities across France to support schoolchildren’s demands for better conditions and protest against the rising cost of living and low salaries.

France’s education minister, Édouard Geffray, said he feared the school year was now “at risk” for many students in their final years who had missed weeks of classes because of the blockades and would be unable to complete coursework or catch up on the curriculum for exams. Nicolas Bonnet, of the headteachers’ union SNPDEN-UNSA, said he understood why high-school students felt the government had not offered enough to fix problems in schools, but urged more dialogue between the government and pupils.

The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said he would meet school students’ unions again next week.