UK to make legal migrants wait longer for settled status

Britain’s Labour government plans to make some legal migrants wait up to 20 years before they can apply to settle in the UK permanently, the interior minister announced Thursday.

The proposals detailed by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood form part of efforts to reduce legal immigration and come days after she announced a shake-up of irregular migration rules.

The crackdown on both types of migration is partly a response to polls showing public support increasing for the hardline Reform UK party, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage.

It is also seen as a way to try to ease pressure on Britain’s overstretched public services.

“To settle in this country forever is not a right, but a privilege, and it must be earned,” Mahmood, whose parents were immigrants to Britain, told parliament.

The government announced in May that it wanted to double the qualifying period for the so-called Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) from five to 10 years.

Mahmood announced on Thursday that people arriving through regular migration channels who have claimed benefits for more than 12 months would have to wait 20 years before being able to apply.

For those arriving through irregular channels, it would be 30 years.

Some low-qualified workers who arrived on health and social care visas after Brexit and migrants who had claimed benefits for less than 12 months would have to wait 15 years, she added.

Under the plans, which are now subject to a 12-week consultation and which Mahmood hopes will come into effect next April, public service workers such as doctors and nurses could still qualify after five years.

High earners could be eligible after three years, the interior ministry said.

Mahmood said migration would “always be a vital part of Britain’s story” but the “scale” of it in recent years had been “destabilising”.

The government estimates that currently because of the increase in net migration to the UK, some 1.6 million people could become legally eligible for leave to remain between 2026 and 2030.

– ‘Far-right rhetoric’ –

Under her reforms, anyone looking to remain indefinitely must have no criminal record, be able to speak English to a high standard, have no debts, and have paid a social security tax for three years.

Indefinite Leave to Remain allows someone to live, work and study in Britain without any restrictions and is a key route towards getting UK citizenship.

The hard-right Reform UK party, which has enjoyed double-digit leads over Labour in opinion polls for most of this year, has said it would scrap indefinite leave altogether.

Instead, it would require immigrants to reapply for visas every five years. This would apply to the hundreds of thousands of people who have already attained leave to remain.

Mahmood said Labour’s plans would not affect people who already have settled status.

On Monday, she announced plans to cut protections for refugees and threatened visa bans for countries that refuse to take back irregular migrants, many of whom arrive in England on small boats.

The plans have been criticised by refugee charities and are causing unease on the left of Labour.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama accused Mahmood of echoing “the rhetoric of the populist far-right” and “ethnic stereotyping” after she referenced “700 Albanian families living in taxpayer-funded accommodation having failed their asylum claims”.

AFP