Statement on Earned Settlement changes
We are deeply concerned by the Government's Earned Settlement policies announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday 2 November. These proposals risk creating further uncertainty, inequality and hardship for migrants and their families who have made their lives in the UK. We are already hearing such concerns being shared with us.
While we welcome confirmation that rights under the EU Settlement Scheme will remain protected, the Government's proposals unfairly penalises EU citizens whose partners are on family visas outside the EUSS. Under the plans, partners of British citizens will retain a five-year route to settlement, while partners of other migrants, including EU citizens with settled or pre-settled status, face a ten-year wait unless they are high earners.
This creates a deeply unjust two-tier system, treating EU citizens, along with many other migrants from different backgrounds who have made the UK their home, as less deserving of family stability than British citizens. It undermines the principles of fairness which the Government claims these policies are built upon.
Even more concerning is the prospect that these changes will apply to families already on the route to settlement, moving the goalposts for people who have followed the rules, built their lives here and planned their futures around the commitments made to them. Families could face years of additional uncertainty, repeated visa applications and thousands of pounds in extra costs.
This lack of fairness is further reinforced by the, proportionally, low number of people affected in total, roughly 39,000 people who came on a family visa not sponsored by a British citizen to move onto a longer route to settlement (some of these 39,000 will be family members sponsored by EUSS status holders). A policy which causes such uncertainty and fear cannot be considered fair when it harms a minority in such a manner.
Some EU citizens, Dutch citizens for example, can’t become British without giving up the nationality they were born with. For them, the policy is even more unfair.
Settlement should not be a privilege reserved for those who earn the most, nor should the right to build a secure family life depend on nationality or income. Migrants are our families, friends, neighbours and colleagues. We contribute to our communities in countless ways which cannot simply be measured through earnings.
We call on the Government to reconsider these damaging proposals, ensure equal treatment not only for the family members of EU citizens, but also for those of all other settled migrants. If the Government will not change its mind on the policy, we ask them to introduce meaningful protections for those already on a route to settlement. A fair immigration system should provide security, protect families and recognise that people who have built their lives here belong here.
For those who are anxious about the future around spousal visas of EUSS status holders, we have create a brief resource to try and bring some clarity to what is an uncertain situation. You can read it here.
