The Government has published the Immigration White Paper, comprising a range of significant changes to the immigration system. The White Paper also forms part of the Government’s Plan for Change which includes, like its Conservative predecessors, reducing net migration without setting a specific target.
These changes are being introduced as part of broader anti-immigration shifts on both sides of the Atlantic. Notably, the White Paper was introduced against a backdrop of a strong local election result from Reform UK, and while the Government have denied their anti-migrant policies are a response to the growing electoral threat of the right-wing party, the publication of the proposals is certainly interesting timing.
The guiding principles for the policies are that:
- Net migration must come down
- The immigration system must be linked to skills requirements in the UK
- The Immigration system must be fair and effective
- Immigration rules must be respected and enforced
- The immigration system must support integration and community cohesion
Before we dive into the key proposals, let’s address the false claim that the UK has had open borders up until now. The immigration system is incredibly restrictive and the White Paper itself acknowledges the existence of a points-based system. In fact, some of the proposals aren’t actually anything new. Not to mention the narrative that has accompanied the announcement which arguably took some inspiration from Enoch Powell around the ‘island of strangers’ line.
So, what are the key takeaways from the White Paper?
Changes for migrant workers
Central to the White Paper is the emphasis on linking the immigration system to skills and training. Specifically lifting their level for skilled workers to RQF 6 and above as well as salary threshold rises.
The Government claims that there is a link between falling employment of UK workers and increased employment of non-EU migrant workers in certain industries in the UK, such as health and social care, manufacturing, and administrative and support services, and that this is a problem. They argue that reducing the employment of migrant workers and increasing training for UK workers instead will raise living standards, for example in reducing demand for housing.
To address the perceived imbalance of hiring migrant workers, the Government will establish the Labour Market Evidence Group (dubbed the ‘Quad’) will work together to gather and share evidence about the state of the workforce. This will be comprised of:
- The Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, who are encouraged to focus on domestic recruitment and training
- The Department for Work and Pensions, which will be “tasked with reducing economic inactivity and increasing workforce participation”
- Skills England and equivalent organisations in the Devolved Governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which will target training needs
- The Migration Advisory Committee which will guide immigration policy
Alongside the White Paper, the Government has been releasing evaluations of certain visa schemes including one on the Skilled Worker route. This includes a number of findings, but a stark finding is the contrast between Government rhetoric on ‘open borders’ and cutting back an apparent reliance on international recruitment, and the fact 36% of visa sponsors said they avoided using the Skilled Worker visa unless absolutely necessary.
Skills investment
There will be changes that affect all people on Skilled Worker Visas, as well as some that specifically target so-called “lower-skilled” occupations, in order to reduce the number of people working in the UK in certain sectors. The qualification requirement for the Skilled Worker Visa will be raised to RQF Level 6 (equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree). Salary thresholds will also be raised to reflect the higher skill requirement.
For people in so-called “lower-skilled” occupations (e.g. builders, care workers), the number of visas granted for these jobs will be reduced by up to 50,000. For these roles that don’t meet the increased skill level, the ability of employers to hire migrant workers for these jobs will be limited: a visa will only be granted where there is “compelling evidence of shortages vital to the UK’s industrial strategy,’ as part of the Temporary Shortage List. The Temporary Shortage List will replace the Immigration Salary List, which gives people discounts from salary thresholds. The Government will ask the Migration Advisory Committee to undertake a thorough review of salary requirements, including reviewing ‘discounts’. Employers will also have to demonstrate plans to boost recruitment from the UK and develop skills.
It’s important to note that this proposal isn’t new. The UK previously had a Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT) which was abolished in 2021. The RLMT had to be carried out by businesses looking to sponsor a skilled worker (Tier 2 visa) in order to demonstrate that the vacancy could not be carried out by a UK citizen or settled worker.
The Immigration Skills Charge (the fee that employers need to pay when sponsoring migrant workers) will be increased by 32%, making it more expensive for employers to hire migrant workers to incentivise hiring UK workers instead. The money from this will be used to invest in domestic training in the UK.
For those already on a Skilled Worker visa, the Government have stated: “from the point that the skills threshold is raised, existing Skilled Worker visa holders will continue to be able to renew their visa, change employment and take supplementary employment, in currently eligible occupations below RQF 6”. For new migrant workers, or those applying to switch from other routes, will have to follow the new rules. We will provide further information as details emerge.
Care workers
The changes to the Health and Care visa have been the major upset within the proposed changes. They have declared that overseas recruitment will be terminated in adult social care, which indicates that other forms of health and care roles e.g. doctors and nurses won’t be impacted. This will be implemented over a three-year period, meaning migrants currently working in the care sector will still be able to extend their visas and others with a valid visa will still be able to switch into these roles.
The introduction of the Health and Care Visa massively contributed to the increase in migration, despite only being introduced in 2020. There have been concerns about the rapid numbers of sponsor license holders offering sponsorship of health and care workers, who have been accused of exploitative behaviours. Interestingly, ending exploitation in the adult social care sector has been cited as a reason for introducing the restrictions.
There has been a massive misrepresentation of framing care work as ‘low skilled’- a profession that requires specialised training, and is difficult in its nature. Furthermore, care workers bodies have expressed alarm over the changes as the sector faces over 130,000 vacancies and difficulty recruiting domestically. There are many reasons for this: the increasing demand for carers from an ageing population alongside jobs offering low wages and long hours.
If the Government is serious about both tackling exploitation and addressing shortages in care, then it needs to raise wages, improve working conditions and abolish sponsorship, rather than implementing even more restrictive immigration policy.
Sponsorship
In an attempt to address exploitation of migrant workers in the sponsorship system, the Government will make it easier for sponsored workers to switch to another licensed sponsor for the duration of their visa. However, this is being heralded a new change but sponsored workers are already able to switch sponsors that have the same job code. In line with the call from the Justice for Sponsored Workers campaign, what would be more useful to workers is abolishing the 60-day limit to find a new sponsor which causes huge issues for workers under current rules.
The domestic worker route will also be reviewed, potentially to be terminated as a result of exploitation of workers in the UK on this visa.
They are proposing to allow a limited pool of UNHCR recognised refugees and displaced people to apply for employment through existing skilled worker routes, where they have the skills to do so, without any detail on how they may work in practice and how they will prevent exploitation of refugees.
Clampdown on International students
Universities and international students have been facing intense scrutiny over the past few years. With restrictions already placed on some international students not being allowed to bring in dependents, numbers of international students coming to study in the UK has dropped significantly.
The proposals introduce harsher requirements on universities as sponsoring institutions by raising Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) metrics, in order to reduce what the Home Office sees as “abuse and exploitation” of the study visa route. This will include raising the minimum pass rate for each BCA metric, such as enrolment and course completion rates.
Additionally, all sponsoring higher education institutions that use agencies for recruitment will be required to sign up to the Agent Quality Framework (AQF), which regulates agents. This is important, as we have seen international students charged high, illegal fees for agents’ services, although the Home Office unfairly frames this change as students exploiting the system.
The Government will also look into introducing a levy on the income that higher education institutions receive from international students to be reinvested into domestic higher education and skills training. This will be fully announced as part of the Autumn Budget.
There’s also been moves to make it more difficult for international students to claim asylum. There were reports before the White Paper was released that certain nationalities will be targeted for refusals if they felt there was going to be a claim for asylum, or a risk of overstaying.Strangely, this doesn’t appear as prominently in the Immigration White Paper itself.
Graduate Visa
The Graduate Visa was introduced in 2021 after the post study work visa had been abolished in 2012, due to accusations of ‘abuse of the system’. The current graduate visa scheme allows international students to stay for an additional two years via this route. Now, the Government has proposed to shorten the period from 24 months to 18 months. Students who have access to the 36 month Graduate Visa (e.g. PhD students) will not see any changes for now.
Further changes will be explored, for example in relation to restricting the Graduate Visa to graduate-level (RQF6) jobs.
Despite proposing further restrictions on graduates, the Government published an evaluation into the graduate route on 12th May 2025. This found that over three-quarters of Graduate route users were working and incredibly high levels of fluency (83%).
Increasing English language requirements
English language requirements have always been used as a way to ‘control’ who is allowed into the country, and applies to various visa schemes.
The English requirements will be raised for many visa categories, as well as for long term residency. There is an increased focus on dependents of the main applicant, and there will be a requirement for all dependents to meet new standards ( A1 standard (beginner) of English).
For visas where there is already an English language requirement, this will be raised to B2 (upper intermediate) level. For people applying for settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain, or ILR), the English language requirement will be increased from B1 (pre-intermediate) to B2. People will also need to demonstrate progression in their English language abilities to A2 to extend their visa and B2 to apply for settlement.
English language levels amongst migrants are used as a key mechanism to not only restrict migration but also reinforce ‘integrationist’ narratives. Specifically, it’s a way to effectively accuse migrants (and racialised people) of not integrating and thereby justifying more harsh policies against them.
Reducing Right to Remain and Settlement
Broadly, the Government is restricting border and immigration rules to make it easier to refuse entry to the UK when there is an intention to claim asylum, or from those who ‘break the rules or laws’ without clarifying what rules and laws these would be to warrant this refusal. They are also intending to make it easier to remove status from people who break immigration rules or UK law, and make it easier to deport people where they have done so. This aligns with earlier policy changes to restrict the ability to apply for British citizenship for refugees who were forced to cross the Channel and enter the UK without prior authorisation.
Together, reducing the right to remain of people in the UK appears to be sought through limiting people’s ability to invoke their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as well as expanding the circumstances under which individuals can be refused a visa or ordered to be deported for. The latter is not through the creation of new immigration offences, as in the Border Security Bill, but rather through discretionary judgements, such as the Good Character test.
It says the Government will explore potential measures, such as drafting new policies to apply to people who claim asylum “where conditions in their home country have not materially changed,” with a particular focus on people who claim asylum after arriving in the UK on a visa. Additionally, they will look into tighter visa controls, restrictions or requirements where they have evidence of perceived “abuse” of a visa route, including visa-free travel. For the latter point, we have already seen changes with countries like Colombia having visa-free travel revoked after an increase in Colombian nationals claiming asylum.
As little detail is present in the Immigration White Paper, it is not clear how this will be enacted. Nationality could certainly be a factor, as it often has been in the past, especially where algorithms have been used to suggest similar decisions, but this is not something that is confirmed at this moment in time.
Family migration
The Government will reform the framework for family migration, focusing on language, income and character requirements, which will be brought in by the end of the year. The Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) forthcoming report on minimum income requirements will inform these policies, in addition to tightening the Suitability Rules, focusing on the good character requirement and English language requirements.
Currently, the Government argues that too many family migration cases are granted as cases exceptional to the normal rules, i.e. where human rights law may mean that people who don’t otherwise meet the requirements would be able to migrate. The Immigration White Paper is therefore seeking to reduce the ability to invoke these exceptional circumstances, making explicit reference to the perceived (over-)use of Article 8 rights (the right to respect for one’s private and family life under the ECHR).
Foreign National Offenders
The Government will release measures later this year to “streamline and speed up” the deportation process for people designated as “foreign national offenders”, including enabling the Home Office to more easily revoke visas and pursue deportation for a much wider range of criminal convictions where prison sentences have not been given.
This appears to be another area where the Government is looking to restrict people’s ability to invoke their Article 8 rights against deportation, as they also state their aim of “tak[ing] action” before people with convictions “get the opportunity to put down roots in the UK” and before they may commit a more serious offence.
The Home Office will also be informed of all cases where a foreign national receives a conviction, not just where they receive a prison sentence of 12 months or more, in order to take deportation action earlier.
This proposal comes in the wake of significant media coverage around the intention to publish ‘nationality crime league’ tables in a not-so-subtle attempt to scapegoat certain migrants. We’ve spoken previously about attempts to manufacture a link between nationalities and criminality which only serves to deepen prejudice and discrimination towards migrants from certain countries.
Changes to Citizenship and settlement
The Immigration White Paper emphasises the Government’s view of settlement and citizenship as a privilege, not a right, in its reforms, referring instead to “earned settlement” and “earned citizenship”. This reflects efforts from successive governments to reframe citizenship in the context of expanding powers to deprive people, mainly racialised Britons, of their citizenship – it was Conservative Home Secretary (later Prime Minister) Theresa May who referred to citizenship as a privilege, not a right in 2013 in this context.
The standard qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) will now be ten years (although the five year route will remain). The Points-Based System will be expanded, including with the ability to reduce the qualifying period for settlement based on “contributions to the UK economy and society,” in changes that will be consulted on later this year.
Reforms to citizenship will align with settlement reforms, including extending the qualifying period of settlement and the ability to reduce that through the Points-Based System. There will also be a review and likely update of the Life in the UK test and how it operates.
There will however be a consideration of measures to reduce the financial barrier of applying for citizenship for people who came to the UK as children. Similarly, the Government is looking to implement support for people who have been undocumented since childhood are able to regularise their status and gain settlement.
It is important to note that these are proposals and not finalised changes. The Immigration White Paper is not a bill like the Border Security Bill. It contains changes that may be reconsidered or changed as a result of consultations, and most of them will require changes to the immigration rules to be brought before Parliament. As a result, different changes are predicted to be introduced across the length of this Parliament. This offers an opportunity to challenge many of the harmful, anti-migrant policies put forward in the Immigration White Paper.
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