The government has unveiled a new five-point plan aimed at reducing immigration, with measures such as prohibiting care workers from bringing their families and increasing the minimum salary for skilled worker visas.
Mr Cleverly asserts that these measures would have resulted in approximately 300,000 individuals who entered the UK last year being ineligible. Additionally, he reiterated plans to raise the immigration health surcharge from £624 to £1,035.
Introduced policies explained
Described as "more robust" than previous migration policies, the plan addresses health and care visas, skilled worker visas, family visas, the shortage occupation list, and student visas. These plans are:
Skilled worker visa minimum salary change: As part of the plan, the threshold for skilled worker visa applications will see a nearly 50% increase, rising from £26,200 to £38,700. The minimum requirement for family visas will also be elevated to £38,700 to ensure financial support for dependents, compared to the current rate of £18,600 set in 2012.
Shortage occupation list: The government aims to reform the system for overseas workers in understaffed sectors by eliminating the 20% discount on the minimum salary for shortage occupation visas. Additionally, there will be a review and reduction of the types of jobs included in the shortage occupation list, aimed at curbing the use of discounted foreign labour.
Family visas: The minimum requirement for a family visa will increase to £38,700, aiming to ensure that individuals can financially support their dependents. The current threshold, set at the 2012 rate of £18,600, will be adjusted accordingly.
Student visas: In light of recent restrictions on bringing family members on student visas, the government plans to task the Migration Advisory Committee with reviewing the graduate route. The objective is to prevent abuse and safeguard the integrity and quality of higher education in the UK.
Health and care visas: To address the perceived misuse of the health and care visa, the government has implemented a policy preventing overseas care workers from bringing family dependents. To sponsor individuals for visa applications, care firms are required to be regulated by the Care Quality Commission. According to the government's definition, dependents include spouses, civil partners, unmarried partners, and children under the age of 18.
Changes point to an impending shortage in workforce: Experts
As far as expert opinions go, James Cleverly has clearly been facing mounting pressure to demonstrate a strong stance on immigration and now that he has, there’s a good chance that various sectors in the UK will face worker shortages, gravely including the NHS.
Dr Rahul Mukherjee, Consultant Physician in Respiratory & Internal Medicine, Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham spoke to Asian Voice about the ban on care workers from bringing over their family dependents and how it will affect patient and elderly care. He said, “With rising elderly populations, the demand for care in patients' domestic and care home settings is rising in all developed countries. In October 2023, Skills for Care, UK published its annual report on the state of the adult social care workforce in England and the situation is dire. The job vacancy rate, a measure of workforce shortages, has remained around 10% since the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Additionally, working conditions –low pay, high pressure, and burnout from heavy workloads is causing many local healthcare workers to quit and this sector is heavily reliant on overseas workers. The staffing crisis in adult social care has been widely identified as a key cause of more than 400,000 people in England waiting for care-needs assessments and NHS hospital discharge delays getting worse.
“Denying visas to dependents of care workers will probably worsen the care crisis as it may result in reduced recruitment overseas. This will inevitably make it even more difficult for acute hospitals to discharge people who do not need a hospital bed to social care settings (like care homes or patients' own home with carer visits). Therefore, this decision on visas will most likely worsen the National Health Service (NHS) crisis by prolonging ambulance waiting times due to the unavailability of hospital beds. We hope that the UK government has a plan to tackle this impending worsening of the health and care crisis.”
Dr JS Bamrah, a consultant psychiatrist at North Manchester general hospital, said, “The crucial issue here is that care workers are currently allowed to come to the U.K. on a work visa. They have the option of developing their career which then allows them to settle down as British residents, unlike students who arrive in the country.
“They have a longer term career and settlement plan and most of them will renew their stay and contracts. Many, if not most, will forfeit their careers in their native countries to take up new careers in the UK and why would they not want to bring their nuclear families here? Article 8 of the Human Rights Act gives them the right not to be separated from their families, which this new suggested ruling will do the exact opposite of.
“I’m certain that this ruling, if passed, will increase the workforce crisis in both the health and social care sectors. This policy is a knee-jerk reaction to the criticism the government has faced over rising immigration numbers, it is poorly thought through, defies logic and is evident that the government is trying to curb immigration at the cost of the health of the population. Frankly, it spells disaster.
“The government must surely consult properly, within its departments and debate such an important issue in Parliament to get a consensus.”
Dr Dinesh Bhugra, Professor of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, said, “It is worrying that the government are planning to stop dependents of care workers and others coming over. Not every migrant wants to bring families over. In some cases there may be only children who need to look after their parents. This will deter many people from applying to migrate especially when rates of vacancies in the NHS and social care are unsustainable.
“In collectivist cultures, children are expected to look after older adults. Furthermore in many cultures filial piety and looking after one’s parents is absolute must. Some migrants may develop cultural bereavement as has been shown in various communities where people are not allowed to look after their elders. Cultural expectations need to be managed. There are likely to be young migrants who are going to be contributing more to the economy than taking from it.”
According to Shailesh Pathak, the Secretary General of FICCI these policy changes are most definitely going to affect the workforce. He said, “While all nations decide their immigration policies by their national interests, on behalf of Indian industry and commerce, FICCI would express our concern that this change by the UK may have unintended consequences. The world is looking at highly skilled Indian professionals, especially in IT, engineering and research. Given the UK’s increased salary threshold for foreign skilled worker visas, such Indian professionals would almost certainly choose other economies. This would discourage Indian companies from doing business in the UK since such companies employ both British and Indian professionals.
“Thus far, Indian professionals have contributed their expertise to address critical skill shortages in the UK. This may not continue in future - which would be unfortunate for the British economy’s innovation and economic growth. The availability of skilled Indian talent has been a crucial element in enhancing the competitiveness and productivity of various industries in the UK and needs to be nurtured appropriately. “
