Received from: Unison
Merged into composite C03
The government’s white paper heralds significant changes to the UK’s immigration system. It will end overseas recruitment in the NHS and social care for any role below degree level, double the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) for work visas, and reshape and limit immigration for work.
Congress asserts that migrant workers are not responsible for poor pay or exploitation within the labour market. Exploitation was rampant in social care before overseas recruitment started. Restrictions on migrant workers do not protect against exploitation; it makes exploitation more common.
Congress believes that scapegoating migrant workers for the ills of our labour market doesn’t tackle the far right, it encourages them. The creation of more short-term rights-restricted schemes risks creating super-exploitation of precarious groups of migrant workers.
Migrant workers have kept vital services running. Congress opposes any moves to retrospectively extend the qualifying period for ILR from five to 10 years. This would breach trust and leave workers trapped in exploitation for another five years, rendering them second class citizens in the UK for longer.
Congress therefore calls on the TUC and its affiliates to campaign for:
i. a sector wide visa scheme in social care, enabling migrant workers to challenge bad employers without the threat of dismissal and removal
ii. retention of the five-year route to ILR, and a commitment not to apply any change retrospectively
iii. greater protections for migrant workers from exploitation and strengthened access to trade union rights
iv. a rights-based visa system for migrant workers.
UNISON
AMENDMENT
Add new paragraph after paragraph 4:
“Congress believes that the rhetoric of some ministers and further immigration legislation legitimise the arguments of Reform UK and other far-right parties.”
At the end of the motion, add:
“Congress calls on the TUC to work with partners, including Stand Up to Racism, to oppose the scapegoating of migrants in areas with Reform UK MPs and councils.”
National Education Union