The Government has announced the first changes to be introduced from the Immigration White Paper. These changes concern increases to required so-called skill and salary thresholds, including limiting shortage occupations that people can be sponsored to fill. The Government claims this is to “restore control of Britain’s borders”, but these arbitrary adjustments look more like excluding working-class migrants. They will be laid before Parliament – this announcement does not mean these changes are effective immediately, but the Government have said that they expect them to be in place on 22nd July.
For Skilled Worker visas, increases to the required skills threshold to degree level will mean that 111 occupations will become ineligible for sponsorship. The salary threshold will also rise from £38,700 to £41,700 – over £4000 above the median UK salary. Social care workers will no longer be able to be recruited using the Health and Care visa, as the Government will close the route in what they see as a response to widespread abuse and exploitation. It’s ironic that the Government claims to care about and address this exploitation, when it is the sponsorship system and a punitive immigration system that trap workers in these circumstances.
When the Immigration White Paper was announced, it was said that this wasn’t intended to affect current visa holders. For social care workers, the Government said this would be implemented in a phased approach over a three-year period, meaning migrants currently in the sector should still be able to extend and switch onto these visas.
Shortage occupations will see significant changes. The Immigration Salary List, formerly known as the Shortage Occupation List, will be abolished in its current form. People who are not qualified to degree-level will only be able to work in the UK for specified, short-term time periods and if they are able to fill “critical roles” from a targeted immigration salary list and temporary shortage list.
They will not be able to bring dependents, meaning people will have to make a difficult decision to either leave their families behind or invest time and money into reaching the higher skills threshold. This is a condition that is increasingly being applied in order to make migrants’ lives in the UK more insecure, both in the sense of having fewer personal ties to the UK and limiting their ability to exercise their human right to family life – a right under Article 8 of the ECHR.
Sectors who use the temporary shortage list to hire migrant workers will face strict requirements to increase the skills from the domestic population. International recruitment will be limited to occupations that are “key to the industrial strategy or building crucial infrastructure.” We can speculate from the White Paper that this will be the IT, telecoms and engineering sectors, but without the details it’s another vague reference that leaves many sectors unsure if they will be affected. In addition, each sector will need to put in place a workforce strategy to train and upskill UK workers, in order to retain the ability to sponsor migrant workers.
The Government also signalled the next changes that will be introduced later this year: The Immigration Skills Charge will be increased, as will language requirements for most visa and immigration categories. A “new family policy framework” will also be put before Parliament. While no more information was provided here, the Immigration White Paper suggests this will relate to income, language and character requirements, as well as restricting grants of leave under exceptional circumstances, i.e. invocations of human rights law (Article 8 of the ECHR). You can find further detail on what these changes are likely to be in our analysis of the Immigration White Paper.
In other related news, the Not a Stranger campaign group have written to the Prime Minister calling for his ‘regret ‘he has expressed over his widely criticised ‘island of strangers’ speech into action. Supported by MRN and the Pan-African Workers’ Association, the group are demanding a commitment to replace the Government’s anti-immigration rhetoric with a discourse that upholds the rights, and acknowledges the humanity of every individual who calls the UK their home. Check out the letter and find out how you can support by heading to our new Hostile Office: Immigration White Paper sub-campaign.
If you’re affected by the Immigration White Paper proposals, consider joining the Not a Stranger campaign group by completing the form to get updates on their meetings.
You can find more of our work here on our Hostile Office campaign.