Key facts
- The standard settlement qualifying period would double from five to 10 years under the consulted plans.
- Some occupations below graduate level, including care workers, could face a 15-year qualifying period, subject to proposed exemptions.
- Ministers including Angela Rayner raised concerns about the effect on care workers already in the UK.
- Signatories said the proposals were an iteration of Windrush era policies and urged ministers to stop history from repeating itself.
- The letter warned that exemptions for some public-service workers may not protect staff at independent health and social care providers.
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, was to announce new rules on Monday setting how long legal migrants must wait for permanent settlement in the UK, with most facing a decade and some up to 15 years, the Guardian reported.
The government's response to its consultation on the reforms, to be put before MPs on Monday, was expected to grant some exemption to care workers already in the UK, while most other professions would face the longer waits. Under the plans published for consultation, the standard qualifying period would double from five to 10 years, and some workers in occupations below graduate level, including care workers, could face a 15-year period, subject to proposed exemptions and reductions.
Mahmood has proposed that the wait could be reduced if legal migrants showed contribution to their local communities through a points based system or earned higher incomes. The Guardian first reported in July that the prime minister, Andy Burnham, was considering exempting hundreds of thousands of care workers to relieve pressure on the social care sector. The Home Office has granted about 200,000 health and care worker visas in the last five years, with many more arriving as dependants.
Ministers, including the housing secretary, Angela Rayner, had raised concerns about the effect on care workers already in the UK who would be likely to face a 15-year wait. In June, Rayner described such waits as un-British. In September, the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, said the plans would have been tough for her family, who came to Britain as refugees.
In a letter to Mahmood and the health secretary, Yvette Cooper, seen by the Guardian, parliamentarians and organizations representing migrant workers, racial equality campaigners and health professionals described the proposals as an iteration of Windrush era policies. The letter, dated 29 October, urged ministers to stop history from repeating itself by abandoning the proposals or, at a minimum, introducing extra safeguards.
Signatories argued that changing the rules for people who had planned their lives around existing requirements would be unfair and could encourage essential workers to leave the country. They warned that 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. The letter urged ministers to follow the recommendations of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, conducted by Wendy Williams.
Labour MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Diane Abbott, Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell were among the signatories, alongside Green MPs Ellie Chowns, Carla Denyer, Siân Berry and Hannah Spencer. Organizations backing the letter included the Work Rights Centre, Action for Race Equality, Care England and the Society of Radiographers. The signatories wrote that Windrush was a scandal borne from racist immigration policies and that the same wrong persists.
The letter warned that the health and care sector was already dangerously under-staffed and that the changes risk worsening the health and wellbeing of everyone in the UK. It argued the government could struggle to meet cancer treatment and NHS waiting-list reduction targets without retaining and expanding the workforce, particularly in radiography. Launching the consultation on earned settlement last year, Mahmood described Britain as a multi-faith, multi-ethnic democracy that demanded contribution and integration, and said permanent membership was not a right but a privilege that must be earned.