New settlement rules and proposed exemptions
Shabana Mahmood will announce new rules on Monday that double the standard settlement qualifying period from five to 10 years. Some workers in occupations below graduate level, including care workers, could face a 15-year qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. Mahmood proposed that the settlement wait could be reduced if legal migrants show community contribution through a "points based system" or if they earn higher incomes. Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, raised concerns about the effect these rules would have on care workers already in the UK. Rayner called making care workers already in Britain wait up to 15 years for permanent residence "un-British." Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, said the plans would have been "tough" for her family who came to Britain as refugees. The Home Office granted about 200,000 health and care worker visas in the last five years, with many more people arriving as dependants. The government expects the response to a consultation on the reforms, which will go before MPs on Monday, to give some exemption to care workers already in the UK, though most other professions will face lengthy waits. Last year, Mahmood launched a consultation on earned settlement and stated that becoming a permanent part of the country "is not a right but a privilege" that must be earned. I find the proposal to extend waits to 15 years for essential workers a mistake that ignores the scale of the visa system.
The Windrush warning and sector risks
Parliamentarians and migrant worker organisations sent a letter on 29 October to Mahmood and health secretary Yvette Cooper. The signatories, which include Labour MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Diane Abbott, Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell, alongside Green MPs Ellie Chowns, Carla Denyer, Sian Berry and Hannah Spencer, describe the proposals as "an iteration of Windrush era policies." Organisations backing the letter include the Work Rights Centre, Action for Race Equality, Care England and the Society of Radiographers. These groups argue that changing the rules for people who planned lives around existing settlement requirements would be unfair and could encourage essential workers to leave the country. They also warn that proposed exemptions for some public-service workers may fail to protect staff employed by independent health and social care providers. The Home Office granted about 200,000 health and care worker visas in the last five years, and the health and care sector remains "dangerously under-staffed." The signatories warn that the government could struggle to meet cancer treatment and NHS waiting-list reduction targets without retaining staff in professions like radiography. They also state that without international workers, adult social care services will contract and unmet need will increase. The letter urges ministers to follow the recommendations of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, conducted by Wendy Williams, which called for better scrutiny of immigration policy. The signatories write that the Windrush scandal involved Black Britons being wrongly detained and denied access to work, and they warn that this same wrong persists.
