Letter to The Times
This letter appeared (top of the letters page) in The Times today. The Times has a paywall, so we thought we'd repeat it here. We hope it has some effect on the readership and the powers that be.
Dear Sir,
Current Home Office proposals to introduce new restrictions on British citizens and settled persons who wish to sponsor their non-EU family members to join them in the UK are a blunt and disproportionate policy instrument. These proposed changes would keep families apart and would further marginalise those who already face disadvantages in society.
The proposed measure of a minimum income threshold could mean that individuals earning less than £25,700 a year would not be able to bring a non-EU spouse or partner to live with them in the UK. The income requirement would rise to as much as £53,600 to allow a person to sponsor a spouse and three dependent children. This would potentially prevent half of the UK’s working population from living with their nuclear family in the UK. In addition, theproposed change would discriminate against women, people with disabilities, young people and some ethnic minorities as the average earnings of these groups are lower than the national median income.
While the Home Office has suggested that these changes would reduce costs to the public purse, they have produced no evidence to show that people joined here by a foreign family member constitute a burden on the tax system. In addition, the government should not interfere with people’s right to live with their family members in the UK in order to reduce net migration numbers.
We therefore call upon the Home Secretary to abandon these proposed changes to the rules, which would prevent many from enjoying their right to a family life in the UK. They would threaten efforts to promote stable family life across society as well as the integration of migrants in the UK.
Signed:
Dr Rob Berkeley, Director, Runnymede Trust
Zrinka Bralo, Executive Director, Migrant and Refugee Communities Forum
Kamena Dorling, Migrant Children’s Project Manager, Coram Children’s Legal Centre
Don Flynn, Director, Migrants’ Rights Network
Vaughan Jones, Chief Executive, Praxis Community Projects
Chris Mead, Founder, Family Immigration Alliance
Pragna Patel, Founder and Director, Southall Black Sisters
Habib Rahman, Chief Executive, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
Emma Scott, Director, Rights of Women
Comments
The Bourgeoisie proposed policy discriminates against those with less income and just like the marriage age restriction previously implemented will be short lived.
Perhaps the Office of National Statistics should provide up to date figures for the following then we can all see the true picture:
1. The number of people in the UK and the quantity that fall into:
a] UK/British Citizens
b] EU citizens but not British/UK
c] Citizens of EU Accession countries but not b] above
d] Nationals from elsewhere but not a], b] or c].
e] Asylum seekers
f] Illegal immigrants - detected
g] Illegal immigrants - undetected (estimate)
Then against each category above have the following breakdowns:
i) How much Tax/NI contributions each one contributes to the UK and what is the average earnings for each category.
ii) How much benefits each category claims/receives from the UK
iii) How much the UK claim back from other countries/categories for benefits paid
iv) How much crime is related to each category
v) How much treatment (cost or/and hours) is provided via NHS services
vi) How much policing/protection/security is provided and the cost
Once we have that information perhaps we can make a fair comparison of contributors and non-contributors in each category and then set a precedent for immigration/border control.
I.e It's alright for EU people to come to UK and claim benefits for their family/relatives without working, but it's not ok for overseas people to work here on jobs that no-one else in the UK or EU will do because of the low pay under the benefits on offer, which overseas workers can't claim!
Eutopia - sounds like a good idea, but the ONS doesn't care about your citizenship, if you weren't born in the UK then you are considered a migrant, end of story, even if you were British by birth.
Part of the difficulty is that people can have multiple citizenships, and can change citizenship without needing to reporting it to every government agency. Also, people can be eligible for citizenships but not take them up. For example, I know a Malaysian whose father is British, but has never claimed a British passport and lives in the UK on a visa.
I think Theresa May is wonderful, she is trying to make Britain better for the British, Australia thinks about its own people before the foreigners and thats how it should be, Britain has been far too daft for far too long, Tony Blair let in too many people and now most Brits are unhappy about their country
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