On Monday, after Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, published the immigration white paper, she refused to tell MPs whether the plan to make migrants wait 10 year of earned settlement (the route to citizenship) would just apply to new arrivals, or to people already in the UK expecing to wait just five years (the current waiting time).
But, according to a story by Matt Dathan in the Times, Cooper does not want to exempt migrants already in the UK from the new rules. He says:
The Times can also reveal that 1.5 million foreign workers who have moved to Britain since 2020 face having to wait a further five years to apply for permanent settlement.
Under reforms set out in the immigration white paper, automatic settlement and citizenship rights will be granted after ten years instead of five, but it did not state whether this would apply for migrants already here.
Government sources said Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, wants to apply the changes to all migrants who have arrived in the UK in the last five years. This would mean that 1.5 million foreign workers who would have qualified for permanent settlement later this year face having to wait until they have lived in Britain for ten years.
Charities, thintanks and MPs have criticised this proposal, saying that extending the amount of time migrants have to wait until they can get citizenship will be bad for integration.
According to a briefing from the Migration Observatory, a migration thinktank, one reason why the Home Office favours the plan is because it will raise money. It explains:
The white paper proposes increasing the duration to settlement to 10 years as the standard amount for workers, with family members still able to get settlement after 5 years. Other proposals allowing earlier settlement for people making a greater social or economic contribution are also set out, with details to be consulted on. A ten-year route to settlement would make the UK more restrictive than most other high-income countries but comparable to Switzerland and Japan.
Mihnea Cuibus, researcher at the Migration Observatory, said: “The newly proposed policies would mean more migrants have temporary status. Making the route to permanent status longer is unlikely to significantly affect migration levels. One of the main impacts would be to bring in more visa-fee revenue to the Home Office, because people on temporary visas pay ongoing fees to be here. For migrants themselves, this means higher costs and longer periods without the rights that come with permanent status and citizenship.”
