FAMILY SPONSORSHIP NORM . UK lowers shutter some more on Indian workers

Indians and other non-EU citizens will have the same immigration rights as EU citizens in the UK, under a system that will give priority to highly skilled workers.

However, the new system will introduce more restrictions on the ability of Indian workers and their families to come to the UK, chiefly, requiring the family also to be sponsored by the employer.

The move would be the biggest shake up of Britain’s immigration system in decades, Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement released on Monday, following her address at the Conservative Party conference.

Britain will end the “freedom of movement once and for all,” May told delegates. She was referring to the system which is a fundamental principle of the EU, and which allows its citizens to look for a job in other member countries, work there without a permit, reside there and stay on even after employment has ended.

“It will be a skills-based system where it is workers’ skills that matter, not where they come from. It will be a system that looks across the globe and attracts people with the skills we need.”

However, successful applicants would be able to bring their immediate family only if sponsored by future employers, thereby increasing the potential costs of businesses and putting further obstacles in the way of people being able to bring their families to the UK.

Under the existing system, workers can bring family members if they meet certain criteria, including crossing a certain salary threshold.

“It will be more difficult for EU citizens and for non-EU citizens… immigration is clearly being treated as the most important issue in Brexit… not trade or investment,” said Pratik Dattani, Managing Director of EPG Consulting and a former UK director of FICCI.

Salary threshold

He added that many questions remained as to what the salary threshold for those coming to the UK would be. “If companies have to sponsor the whole family, will it have to be much higher than it is now?” In a report published earlier this month, the government’s Migration Advisory Committee had recommended maintaining the salary threshold at the current level.

“The system is already extremely restrictive for workers from India and this is going to make it even more so,” said Harsev Bains of the Indian Workers Association. He added that the problem of divided families – with children and spouses stuck abroad because the main earner’s salary does not meet a certain threshold – was only likely set to get worse, while new challenges would be brought into the mix.

The government said it would introduce a “swift system of e-gate visa checks for tourists and visitors coming for short stay business trips from all low-risk countries.” It is unlikely that India would be included in this list.

Earlier this year, in excluding Indian students from easier visa rules, Britain pointed to risk assessments of different countries on overstaying, suggesting India continues to be a high risk country.

During the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, some politicians had courted the South Asian diaspora with promises that Brexit — by enabling Britain to restrict the rights of EU citizens to travel to the UK — could provide the government the capacity to ease rules for those from non-EU countries.

“Because we are unable to restrict migration from the EU, immigrants from non-EU countries have faced more restrictions,” said former International Development Secretary Priti Patel, who campaigned to leave the EU in 2016 ahead of the referendum.

“One of the most troubling untruths peddled before the referendum was the claim that the end of free movement for Europeans would entail the loosening of restrictions on the movement of non-Europeans, including those from South Asia and other parts of the Commonwealth.,” said Satbir Singh, Chief Executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.

“...Today’s announcement proves beyond doubt that the government has no intention of making life easier for Indians or for anybody from the Commonwealth to live here. Indians in the UK and elsewhere should rightly be furious — and New Delhi must raise these concerns the next time the British government asks for an FTA,” he said.

Businessmen, politicians worried

Alongside concerns about the ramping up of restrictive measures, businesses and politicians expressed their concerns about the impact the measures would have on the UK economy. The policy “fails to understand how our economy works, needs of British business and reality of full employment,’ said former Conservative Minister Anna Soubry. “There is no army of UK workers waiting to do unskilled jobs.”

“The Prime Minister’s proposals for a new system have taken a wrong turn,” said industry body CBI “All skill levels matter to the UK economy. Today’s proposals risk worsening labour shortages, already serious in construction, hospitality and care. Restricting access to the workers the UK needs is self-defeating.”

Dattani said that the changes would add to the uncertainty facing businesses — particularly SMEs and fast growing tech companies — which would likely hold off hiring foreign workers until further clarity on the processes and costs of the new system emerged in coming months (a white paper on immigration is expected later this year). “The statement is very political and leaves more questions than it answers.”

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