In an effort to keep pace with the policies of Britain’s hard-right Reform UK party, the Labour government has said that immigrants should “earn the right” to settle in the country. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced last month that migrants will have to learn English to a good standard, have no criminal record and volunteer in their communities. Last week, Ms Mahmood further announced that potential immigrants applying to stay in the UK on certain visas will have to speak English to A-level standard, adding that it was “unacceptable for migrants to come here without learning our language”.
Labour is running scared because Reform is leading in the polls largely thanks to its hard-line stance on immigration. I am a legal immigrant from India to the UK but only a few days before Ms Mahmood’s September announcement, Reform announced plans that could make me and thousands of others like me unable to stay in the country. I feel like Schrodinger’s immigrant – somehow legal and illegal at the same time. In other words, I am someone who has followed all the rules but faces being tossed into limbo.
Nigel Farage – head of Reform and the man predicted by some polls to become Britain’s next prime minister – announced that his party, if it comes to power in the next general election, would get rid of Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), a legal status that gives foreign-born people rights under UK law and access to benefits. Some ILR holders will have to reapply for work visas with a higher salary threshold; those who fail to qualify would have to leave. For ILR holders on lower income, this effectively amounts to deportation.
Mr Farage’s statement is the latest in a series of political announcements that aim to shift the goalposts for legal immigrants. First, Reform claimed they were against only “illegal” immigrants such as refugees and asylum seekers. Now, legal immigrants like me who have ILR are being told that under newly proposed rules everything we have done is no longer good enough.
ILR is similar to a US green card and is open to people who have lived and worked in the UK legally for five years. It is the main route by which most migrants settle in the country. Contrary to public perception, getting an ILR is phenomenally difficult. It is awarded mostly to skilled workers with a job offer but is also available to other immigrants who have completed a certain time of legal residence, depending on their category.
Like most legal immigrants, I have jumped through many hoops. My husband and I have paid more than £3,500 ($4,700) each in visa fees and face a National Health Service surcharge of £1,035 for each year we stay. We passed a “Life in the UK” test that most of my British friends have failed. (Sample questions: Which British monarch hid in an oak tree to evade capture? How many borough councils does London have?)
To top it all off, we also passed an expensive English-language test, despite being educated entirely in English. We pay a high rate of tax and are net contributors, which means we do not rely on assistance from the state. In short, we are – for want of a better term – “good” migrants.
But being good may no longer be enough. Senior Reform figure Zia Yusuf – himself the son of immigrants to the UK – said the change may be retrospective and apply to ILRs already in the country. Under the Reform proposals, immigrants will be made to reapply for visas every five years, with stringent salary and English-language requirements.
In some reports, wage limits for applicants may be set at £60,000 annually, much higher than the average UK wage of £37,430. Many doctors, nurses, scientists or teachers would not earn this figure. Mr Farage also claimed the policy would save £234 billion, a figure he took from a report put out by a think tank called the Centre for Policy Studies, which later withdrew the estimate. Reform has also announced that EU citizens whose status is settled under the European Union Withdrawal Agreement would be exempt, suggesting that it is mostly non-European migrants who are the focus of the party’s policy.
The UK’s next general election is still years away and Reform currently has only four MPs, but polls predict the party would win a majority if elections were held today. Mr Farage’s announcement has made many immigrants panicky, especially following last month’s Unite the Kingdom rally in London organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson that attracted more than 100,000 people.
Immigrants are allowed to apply for British citizenship after a year of holding ILR status, so why do some choose not to? Firstly, many countries do not allow dual citizenship – India is one of them. Many people also have emotional ties to their home country and may want to return in the future.
Second, citizenship applications cost up to £1,735 per adult. Many cannot afford this, especially for an entire family.
But third and most importantly, ILR holders were assured by the British government that they did not need citizenship to live and work in the UK. Many may now rush for citizenship, but Indefinite Leave to Remain should mean just that: indefinite, not until rules are changed.
Uncontrolled mass immigration is a priority for many British voters right now. But penalising those who have followed the rules – especially retrospectively – is incredibly unfair. Many long-term ILR holders are married to British citizens, have British children and have made their entire lives in the UK. Undermining their status, or even deporting them, could tear families apart.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has already called Mr Farage’s announcement racist and immoral. Xenophobia aside, there are practical considerations, too. Making ILR holders re-apply every five years to renew visas – applications that may be rejected – could overwhelm a Home Office system described by the Public Law Project in 2023 as “overstretched and unsustainable”.
According to NHS figures published in March, one in five of its staff said they were not British. Without them, the service is likely to collapse. The UK has an ageing population and there are fears that it will not have enough workers or taxpayers in future. Will skilled workers and high taxpayers want to give their skills to a country where they feel permanently insecure and have no clear path to settlement?
Mr Farage’s announcement may just be a dog-whistle policy to win votes, and it is unlikely that he will be able to push all these changes through if he ever comes to power. But Reform has successfully shifted the political mainstream. Immigrants – legal or illegal – are now under scrutiny as all parties try to out-reform Reform.
