The SNP has accused Theresa May of putting ambition above the economy after she called for EU migrants without a job to be barred from the UK.
The Home Secretary also signalled a new crackdown on foreign students who want to stay on after their course finishes.
The new tough approach comes just days after official figures show net migration to the UK at record levels.
The numbers topped 330,000 for the first time last year, statistics show.
The figures are all the more embarrassing for the Conservatives because David Cameron has publicly said that he wants to reduce net migration to below 100,000.
Mrs May will expect a backlash in Europe as well as her call argues against the EU’s principle of freedom of movement.
David Cameron will have more talks about changing the UK's relationship with the EU later this week, when he visits Spain and Portugal.
But a number of European leaders have already warned that the UK’s attempts to reform the rule on freedom of movement are a non-starter.
An SNP spokesman said: "Theresa May's comments have less to do with the employment status of immigrants and everything to with her own job prospects as a future leader of the Tory party.”
In an article in a Sunday newspaper Mrs May blamed a "broken European migration system" for the current migrant crisis.
She urged EU leaders to radically change the rules on freedom of movement, which currently allows those from other EU countries to travel to the UK without a job.
Mrs May also suggested the Schengen travel area, which guarantees free travel across many European countries from Tallinn to Paris, had put vulnerable people at in the hands of people traffickers and led to the deaths of Syrian migrants.
Mrs May argues that it is time to "break the link" between being a student in the UK and continuing to live here.
The Tory minister also described last week’s migration figures as "far too high" and "simply unsustainable".
She said it would be both "defeatist and wrong" not to try to control the number of people coming to the UK, adding that the "the biggest single factor preventing us (the Tories) from meeting our objective" on the issue was the EU.
She wrote: "When it was first enshrined, free movement meant the freedom to move to a job, not the freedom to cross borders to look for work or claim benefits. Yet last year, four out of 10 EU migrants, 63,000 people, came here with no definite job whatsoever.
"We must take some big decisions, face down powerful interests and reinstate the original principle underlying free movement within the EU."
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