Received from: SoR
The UK government’s consultation on “earned settlement status and the permanent right to remain” rules propose workers face new hurdles and longer waits with additional difficulties for their family members. These apply to all migrant workers, albeit with a hierarchy based on tax contributions – so a city trader could secure safe haven many years faster than an NHS radiographer. Parallel announcements about reducing reliance on internationally trained allied health professionals show a government targeting migrant health and social care professionals’ patients have relied upon for decades, but especially since the pandemic.
Members are scared and confused, telling us the ‘incentives’ to integrate are unnecessary, counter-productive and fuelling a hostile environment in care settings by empowering racists.
These proposals show our politics have been captured by an atmosphere toxic to all immigration. To reset this, government must drop these proposals. Instead, we need an independent commission with cross-party support taking evidence from all communities. This could produce proposals to facilitate policies supporting sustainable public services and a competitive economy, carrying the support of most of the British public.
Therefore, Congress calls for:
i. the TUC to condemn the current proposals, demanding their removal in full
ii. give active support to unions and politically independent campaigns seeking to highlight the positive contribution migrant workers make in public services and how the hostile environment impacts them and their families
iii. an independent cross-party workforce immigration commission to report before the next election.
SoR