Home Office warned legal migration rules overhaul risks leaving 300,000 children ‘in limbo’
More than 300,000 children living in England could be left “in limbo” if the Home Office continues to change legal immigration rules, a think tank has warned.
The Home Secretary outlined proposals to end automatic settlement status after five years in November.
This means the 1.35 million legal immigrants already in the country – almost a quarter of whom are children, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) – will have to wait longer for settled status.
Under the proposed changes, immigrants would apply for settled status after 10 years, but this could be accelerated or extended depending on their “contribution” to the UK.
Public service workers such as doctors and nurses or high taxpayers may qualify after five years.
But from the 2022 “Boris wave” lower-skilled workers on health and social care visas could wait 15 years. Benefit recipients could face a 20-year wait before applying for settlement.
IPPR warned that the proposals would lead to insecurity for families, with detrimental consequences for integration, educational opportunities and child poverty.
The think tank added that retroactive application could also penalize those who came up with different rules.
Marley Morris, IPPR’s deputy director for migration trade and communities, said children of legal immigrants face long-term insecurity.
He said: “Families in the UK are greeted with a set of rules that must ensure that the goalposts are not moved for part of their journey. “It is absolutely unfair for these rules to be applied retrospectively.
“For the 300,000 children affected, this is not an abstract policy change. They face growing up in long-term insecurity and many face new barriers to going to university when they turn 18.
“If the government is serious about integration and tackling child poverty, it cannot design a system that will keep families and children, many of whom will eventually become our citizens, in limbo for a decade or more.”
Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the charity Center for Labor Rights, described the change to the waiting period for settlement as “callous” and a “betrayal” of migrant communities.
He added: “This will not make the system fairer or encourage integration. It will just keep people on high-risk employer-related visas longer and drive gaps between communities.”
