I was lucky but many are not
Back in September of 2012 I arrived in the United Kingdom on a Tier 4 Visa, eager to start my undergraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh. While studying here in the UK, I fell in love; with the country, with the people, and with the amazing opportunities I saw for my future here. I made many great friends both international and British, volunteered my time in the community, and became engaged and involved in the politics of this country. I felt just as at home here as I did back in Canada. By the time I graduated I, along with many of my friends who also came from abroad, knew that I wanted to stay in the United Kingdom. However, for all of us, finding a way to stay in our new home, with our friends, our partners, and our communities, was complicated. In 2012 Therasa May as Home Secretary, scrapped the Post-Study Work Visa, available for graduates of UK universities, which allowed them time to find work and continue to contribute to a country they’d spent some of their most formative years in and grown to hold with deep affection. Many of my friends from abroad, highly educated graduates from one of the best universities in the country, were forced to go elsewhere for work and to build their lives. I was fortunate and happened to qualify for an Ancestry Visa, which allowed me to remain in my new home with my partner and my friends. It meant I could keep my job without sponsorship (which my employer at the time would not have been able to do). 11 years later I’ve submitted my application for citizenship. I am very, very, lucky; many people, are not.
Successive Conservative governments have made no effort to hide the fact that they are anti-immigration in all respects. Over many years I’ve watched in horror as the Conservatives have closed door after door on people wanting to live and contribute to this country. Setting arbitrary salary requirements and increasing the cost of visa applications.
At the same time as limiting access to work and family visas, they’ve also turned their backs on the most vulnerable migrants, those seeking safety and freedom from persecution and war, those who are seeking asylum. The Conservatives, blinded by populism, have fed vitriolic discourse which strips these people of their humanity. Hatred reigns in place of compassion. Labour has hardly been any better. They have been weak and unwilling to stand up for immigrants in any meaningful way.
The events of earlier this week have once again hammered home the point that the Conservatives are a party of closed borders and closed minds.
On Tuesday, Home Secretary James Cleverly announced the Government’s new plans to try and lower net-migration levels into the United Kingdom. These changes include an increase in the minimum salary for skilled workers from £26,200 to £38,700, a ban on health and social care workers bringing dependents into the UK, changes to the Shortage Occupation List and removing the 20% going rate salary discount for shortage occupations. The annual immigration health surcharge will also be almost doubled from £624 to £1035, and the minimum income for family visas will be more than doubled from £18,600 to £38,700. These astronomical increases in the cost to come live and work in our country means that the United Kingdom will be a destination for the rich alone, a country catering to the wealthy, and punishing hard working families looking to live together and contribute to our communities.
These changes come in the wake of last month’s announcement of the 2022 net-migration figure which revealed that 745,000 people chose to come and make the United Kingdom their home. People and families; That’s the important thing to remember. Hidden behind all the rhetoric and calculations are people, like myself, who have come to this country to be educated, to work, to live a life of better opportunity than from where they may have come from, and who in the process have fallen in love, had families, and built meaningful lives in this great country and wish to stay and continue to contribute positively to our society and communities, because this is our home.
These new measures may cut net-migration figures, but they come at great cost for individuals and their families; and are damaging to the country as a whole. The disingenuous rhetoric which claims that these measures will solve other issues in the country like housing shortages, poor economic growth, and the pressure on social services, should not be believed.
Our NHS and social care system, transportation system, and state of the art industries that make the United Kingdom an international leader in science and technology all depend on us attracting the best from around the world. In 2020, 21% of the health and social care workforce were immigrants. In 2023 it was measured that the average salary in health and social care is around £32,000, well below the new threshold for skilled worker visas, and family visas. To compound this, people in this sector will be specifically targeted and banned from bringing their children or other dependents to the United Kingdom with them, forcefully splitting up families in a new and cruel effort in this Government’s war against our NHS. The skills shortages that these policies create will make the United Kingdom poorer and harm the care that we and our loved ones receive.
When it comes to matters of the heart, the raise in minimum income for family visas is no less cruel. In order for a British citizen to sponsor a foreign partner, they will need to be earning at least £38,700, this is almost double the national minimum wage and means that around 75% of British citizens would be ineligible to legally live with their partner in this country. This will either force families apart or drive them to live elsewhere abroad together.
Unsurprisingly, the Conservatives have also renewed their attack on some of the most vulnerable, asylum seekers. Despite the Supreme Court ruling that the Government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful, the Conservatives are looking for workarounds to push ahead with their cruel and illegal policy. James Cleverly has been in Rwanda just this week, signing a new treaty with the government there, in an attempt to rewrite the rules and push the scheme forward. Just today, Rishi Sunak has made announcements saying that the new Rwanda plan will be the toughest immigration law ever and will seek to narrow the grounds on which asylum can be claimed, that, in his own words “it will being vanishingly rare anyone will meet it”.
Labour, unfortunately, once again seem to be weak in their attacks and slow to react to Conservative positions on immigration. The shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has failed to robustly challenge the Government’s plans on the changes to immigration visas nor the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda. In fact, she went so far as to point out that Labour has previously proposed to do the same as the Conservatives and scrap the 20% discount for shortage occupations. Indeed, it wasn’t until today, that Keir Starmer had anything of any meaning to say on the issue. He has only now, finally suggested that Labour will try to stop the Rwanda plans, but remains quiet on other immigration issues.
The Liberal Democrats, in comparison, take a completely different approach to migration. We believe that all people should be treated humanely, with respect and dignity. We recognise that our current immigration system is not fit for purpose, and we want to try and build a system which will be based on fair and liberal policies and will help rebuild faith in the immigration process. We recognise the value that immigrants provide to our society and communities as our friends, neighbours, and families. We want all to feel welcome and valued in our country, that this is a safe place to build a life. Our policies would completely overhaul the system, ending arbitrary income thresholds on family visas, working with business to identify skill shortages, and create a fairer merit-based system for those coming to work in the United Kingdom. We would allow seekers of sanctuary the right to work while their case is being considered to help save tens of millions of taxpayer money and support our communities. We will do all this while cracking down on illegal immigration and those seeking to harm vulnerable people by abusing the system for trafficking.
I am proud to be standing for such a forward thinking and compassionate party. One which understands the richness that diversity brings us and that welcoming people to the United Kingdom should never be seen as soft or weak. We should be proud that people look to the United Kingdom and see it as a land of hope and opportunity and wish to come and make a life here. Liberal Democrats know that creating a hostile environment for migrants will make our country poorer. We will stand up to fight for these communities to ensure they are given a fair deal.
Click here to read our full stance on migration.
Tara Copeland is the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Leyton & Wanstead