Q&A: UK immigration cap

The coalition government has placed an annual limit on the number of immigrants allowed into the UK from outside the European Union.

How does the British immigration system currently work?

How are economic migrants dealt with?

And what about if you come from elsewhere?

So is the coalition scrapping this system?

And how high is net immigration at the moment?

What were immigration levels like in the 1980s?

So how will the government achieve its target?

So what does the cap involve - and how does it work?

So what else can the government do?

What about family reunion?

What effect would a cap have?