Shabana Mahmood, the UK home secretary, will announce sweeping new rules on Monday governing how long legal migrants must wait for permanent settlement, with most likely to wait a decade and some up to 15 years. The government’s response to a consultation on the reforms will be put before MPs the same day.
Under the plans published for consultation, the standard qualifying period for settlement, also known as indefinite leave to remain, would double from five to 10 years. Some workers in occupations below graduate level, including care workers, could face a 15-year qualifying period, subject to proposed exemptions and reductions.
Ministers, including housing secretary Angela Rayner, had raised concerns about the effect on care workers already in the UK who would likely face a 15-year wait. The government response is expected to give some exemption to care workers already in Britain, though most other professions will face lengthy waits.
Mahmood has proposed that the settlement wait could be reduced if legal migrants showed they had contributed to their local communities through a points-based system or if they earned higher incomes. She is expected to meet union general secretaries on Monday, some of whom have raised alarm at the changes.
The Guardian first reported in July that Prime Minister Andy Burnham was considering exempting hundreds of thousands of care workers from the reforms to relieve pressure on the social care sector. The Home Office has granted about 200,000 health and care worker visas in the last five years, with many more people arriving as dependants.
In June, Rayner described making care workers already in Britain wait up to 15 years for permanent residence as “un-British”. In September, energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said the plans would have been “tough” for her family, who came to Britain as refugees.
Parliamentarians and organisations representing migrant workers, racial equality campaigners and health professionals have described the proposals as an iteration of Windrush-era policies in a letter to Mahmood and health secretary Yvette Cooper seen by the Guardian. The letter, dated 29 October, urges ministers to stop history from repeating itself by abandoning the proposals or at least introducing extra safeguards.
The signatories argue that changing the rules for people who have planned their lives around existing settlement requirements would be unfair and could encourage essential workers to leave the country. They warn that proposed exemptions for some public-service workers may fail to protect staff employed by independent health and social care providers, as well as workers’ family members.
The letter urges ministers to follow recommendations from the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, conducted by Wendy Williams, which called for improvements in the development and scrutiny of immigration policy, including greater consideration of its impact on affected communities. The Windrush scandal, exposed by Guardian reporting in 2017, involved mainly Black Britons being wrongly detained, deported and denied access to work and essential services despite having the right to live in Britain.
The Labour MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Diane Abbott, Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell are among the signatories, alongside Green MPs Ellie Chowns, Carla Denyer, Siân Berry and Hannah Spencer. Organisations backing the letter include the Work Rights Centre, Action for Race Equality, Care England and the Society of Radiographers.
The signatories write that Windrush was a scandal borne from racist immigration policies and argue the situation is not historic when the same wrong persists and the same groups are targeted by current immigration proposals. They warn the health and care sector is already dangerously under-staffed and that the changes risk worsening the health and wellbeing of everyone in the UK.
The letter argues the government could struggle to meet cancer treatment and NHS waiting-list reduction targets without retaining and expanding the workforce, particularly in professions heavily reliant on internationally trained staff, such as radiography. It raises particular concerns about adult social care, saying international workers are essential to maintaining current levels of care and that without them services will contract and unmet need will increase.
Launching the consultation on earned settlement last year, Mahmood described Britain as a multi-faith, multi-ethnic democracy that demanded contribution and integration. She said becoming part of the country permanently was not a right but a privilege that must be earned.
Sources: The Guardian World.