• Analysis
15-year settlement wait UK: Mahmood to confirm longer route to indefinite leave to remain
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood will announce new rules on Monday setting how long legal migrants must wait for UK settlement, with most expected to wait a decade and some up to 15 years for indefinite leave to remain.
What the new rules would do
The home secretary will set out on Monday how long legal migrants must wait before they can settle in the UK. Most are likely to face a ten-year wait, while some could wait up to 15 years for settlement, also known as indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
Under the plans published in the earned settlement consultation, the standard qualifying period would double from five years to 10. Some workers in occupations below graduate level - care workers among them - could face a 15-year qualifying period, depending on proposed exemptions and reductions.
- •The standard qualifying period would rise from five to 10 years
- •Most legal migrants are expected to wait a decade, with some waiting 15 years
- •Mahmood proposed the wait could be cut for migrants who contributed to their local communities under a points based system or earned higher incomes
The government's response to the consultation will go before MPs on Monday.
Care workers in the frame
The 15-year settlement wait UK could have fallen hardest on care workers already in the country, and Angela Rayner was among the ministers who voiced concern about them before the announcement. Monday's response is expected to give some exemption to care workers already in the UK.
The Home Office has granted about 200,000 health and care worker visas over the last five years, with many more people arriving as dependants. In July, the prime minister was reported to be weighing an exemption for hundreds of thousands of care workers from the reforms, to relieve pressure on the social care sector.
Windrush warning from MPs
On the eve of the response, MPs warned the proposals risked repeating the injustices of the Windrush scandal and worsening staff shortages across health and social care. In a letter dated 29 October to Mahmood and health secretary Yvette Cooper, parliamentarians and organisations describe the proposals as "an iteration of Windrush era policies".
The signatories write that "Windrush was a scandal borne from racist immigration policies … this situation is not historic", and that the same wrong persists and the same groups are targeted by the current proposals. They urge ministers to "stop history from repeating itself" by abandoning the plans or, at a minimum, introducing extra safeguards.
The letter's signatories include:
- •Labour MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Diane Abbott, Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell
- •Green MPs Ellie Chowns, Carla Denyer, Siân Berry and Hannah Spencer
- •Organisations including the Work Rights Centre, Action for Race Equality, Care England and the Society of Radiographers
Changing the rules for people who have planned their lives around existing settlement requirements would be unfair and could push essential workers to leave the country, the signatories argue. They warn that proposed exemptions for some public-service workers may fail to protect staff employed by independent health and social care providers, as well as workers' family members, and urge ministers to follow the recommendations of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review conducted by Wendy Williams, which called for improvements in the development and scrutiny of immigration policy.
The sector is already "dangerously under-staffed", the letter warns, with the changes risking "worsening the health and wellbeing of everyone in the UK". It argues the government could struggle to meet cancer treatment and NHS waiting-list reduction targets without retaining and expanding the workforce, particularly in professions like radiography reliant on internationally trained staff, and states that "International workers are essential to maintaining current levels of care. Without them, services will contract".
The home secretary's case
Launching the consultation, Mahmood described Britain as a "multi-faith, multi-ethnic democracy" that demanded "contribution and integration".
"To become a part of this country, permanently, is therefore not a right but a privilege – and one that must be earned."
Others in government had also criticised the plans. In June, Rayner described making care workers already in Britain wait up to 15 years for permanent residence as "un-British", and in September energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said the plans would have been "tough" for her family, who came to Britain as refugees.
The government's response goes before MPs on Monday, where care workers already in the UK are expected to receive some exemption.
