'Voted Labour, Now Unwelcomed': Indian Migrants Fear Fallout of UK’s New Rules

The UK government plans to double the qualifying period for settlement status from five to 10 years.

According to the immigration White Paper, the Keir Starmer government plans to double the qualifying period for settlement status in the UK from five to 10 years.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

"Every area of the immigration system—work, family, and study—will be tightened up, so we have more control. Without the rules, we risk becoming an island of strangers," said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer while announcing a proposal to overhaul the country's immigration system.

The immigration White Paper released by the government on 12 May introduced a number of key changes that will widely impact Indians and other immigrants staying in the country on different visas.

Amid news of these proposed changes, confusion and panic have taken over the minds of Indians studying and working in the UK, more so because the government hasn't yet made clear whether the changes will be implemented for all immigrants currently in Britain or the next academic and professional cohort that will arrive this year.

According to the document:

• The government plans to double the qualifying period for settlement status in the UK from five to 10 years.

• It plans to slash the working period for international students from two years to 18 months under its post-study work visa, also known as the Graduate Route

• Further, it plans to increase salary thresholds, effectively making it harder for immigrants to get jobs.

'I Feel Unwelcome' 

Janmejay Singh, 35, came to the UK from India in 2023 to pursue a course at the Royal College of Art. He says that the post-study work visa was the only reason he chose the UK for further studies over other destinations.

However, with the new policies likely to be implemented later this year, he says that now he feels "unwelcome" in the country where he invested so much of his time and effort.

"For anybody coming into this country hoping to do extraordinary work, it feels like a very unwelcoming place," Singh says.

The minimum salary requirement for an immigrant to stay in the UK on a Skilled Worker Visa is £38,000 (Rs 43,45,220) per annum. To meet that expectation is already a tall order, and had compelled Singh to mull the possibility of moving to other countries, such as Canada, Australia or the US.

On top of all the hardships graduates face, if the government implements the new policies, he says, it would be like "shooting themselves in the foot".

"I graduated from the top-ranking arts college in the world as per US university rankings. Having received the best possible education that this country has to offer, if I am forced to go away, then the UK is wasting its time in developing people like me who could go on to do something of regard in this country."

Janmejay Singh

'House Mortgaged, Need To Pay Back Loans' 

While Singh's struggle is that of mental perseverance, there are others whose lives depend on working in Britain in the long haul.

Anirudh Ghosh (name changed on request), too, came to the UK in 2023 to pursue a master's at the Royal College of Art. While he graduated this year and is currently working as a real estate agent in London, his journey to this country wasn't an easy one.

"My parents mortgaged our family home and took a hefty loan at a high interest rate to send me to the UK," the 23-year-old says.

Ghosh's parents come from modest means and run a small business together. They put all their savings and then some to send their son to London.

While the reduction of the post-study work period from two years to 18 months doesn't sound like a lot on the face of it, it impacts many immigrants like Ghosh, who invest heavily to secure a better future for themselves and their families.

"Currently, I think I'm on track to pay back the loan amount. But if the post-study work period is cut down by six months, that's six months less of earning a salary here. If that happens, I'll be left with a lot of money to repay."

Anirudh Ghosh

In order to save money, Ghosh had been staying at a shared room in an accommodation funded by a charity. During his course, he also took up low-paying part-time work and asked his parents not to send him any more money after he graduated.

"Every little bit helps," he says.

Even those who are meeting the salary threshold say, however, that they are struggling to make ends meet amid a precarious economy and high living costs.

"My pay meets the salary requirements for the skilled visa, but even with that amount, I'm hardly able to save anything," says Ashraf Nehal, 24, who graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) last year and is now working at the Grenada High Commission in London.

Impact of the New Rules 

In the meantime, many Indians and other immigrants still don't know how the rules will impact them. There is still lack of clarity regarding the actual target of the new norms — those who are in the country already or those who will arrive after the rules are implemented.

"It's not just a few changes. This is a full reset of the immigration system," says Sanam Arora, chairperson of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) in the UK.

"The scope of changes is so wide that people are just starting to ascertain what it means for them. While it's just a proposal at this stage, it's not a question of if, but when it's implemented. I'm certain that these rules will come into force by the end of the year."

Sanam Arora

Arora says that the new rules have dampened the morale of several immigrants — particularly those who were about to complete five years of stay in the UK and were expectant of their settlement status. Once the immigration norms come into force, they'll have to wait for another five.

Others who have offers in hand from several British universities and had been considering which one to go to are on edge as well, thinking whether they'd like to come to Britain in the first place given how precarious immigration is bound to become.

The one exception the government has made to achieve settlement status is for "highly-skilled" and "high-contributing" individuals in professions like Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, engineering, medicine et al. Instead of waiting the full 10 years for settlement status, as per the new rules, their visa applications will be fast-tracked.

However, Arora says that it's high time the definition of "skill" is perceived differently.

"If someone is working in the care sector, I would call their job technically skilled but also emotionally compassionate, which is a different kind of skill per se. So part of the issue is that the definition of skill globally needs to change and evolve in order to be more representative," she says.

Among the several policy pronouncements in the White Paper, the UK government has also announced the abolition of Health and Care Worker Visas, which are provided to professionals to work in social care services across the the country.

This is bound to have a huge impact on the state-run National Health Service (NHS), in which 2.64 lakh immigrants are employed as per government data from June 2023. Of these, 60,533 are Indians.

Further, for the first time ever, adult dependants of immigrants—including spouses—will be required to meet basic English language standards to be allowed entry into the country.

New Rules a Bid To Compete With Far-Right Reform UK?

The immigration White Paper comes in the backdrop of the rise of far-right leader Nigel Farage and his Reform UK Party, which has pledged to crack down on immigration like never before if elected to power in the country.

In local elections conducted across Britain earlier in May, Farage's Reform UK took control of 10 local councils, won two mayoral posts and won a bye-election in the Runcorn and Helsby Parliamentary constituency—adding a fifth MP to the House of Commons.

Most of these wins came at the expense of the Labour Party and the Tories.

Some analysts in the UK have alleged that Starmer's government put the new immigration rules into motion owing to the rise of Farage's ultra-nationalist politics as well as pressure mounted by rising net migration in the UK.

Financial Times quoted Labour Party members as saying that Starmer considers Farage as his "real opponent" and that the Conservative Party might be reaching the end of the road amid a major realignment of British politics.

"While a lot of immigrants voted for Labour, there is massive disillusionment with what Starmer is doing," says Janmejay Singh.

With the Labour Party's crackdown on immigration, Singh says that voters might either shift into the camp of the liberal Green Party or towards the ultra-conservative Reform UK.

"Why would you want xenophobia lite if you can get xenophobia pro max," he says.

Sanam Arora disagrees.

She says that while the government has certainly tightened immigration norms in the country, this is the best government to maintain a balance — check net migration into the country while at the same time handle the immigration issue through a humanitarian lens.

"This is a balanced government," Arora says. "If they were indeed bowing to pressure from Reform UK, the Graduate Route would be abolished entirely. So I am very thankful that they have kept the Route intact, albeit with a reduction in the working period."

According to data released by the UK Home Office, the number of Indians who came to the country for higher studies increased from around 10,000 in 2015 to a staggering 1.39 lakh in 2022. Between 2022 and 2023, the highest number of student visas were granted to Indians.

Work visas to Indians were also doubled from 35,503 in 2015 to 73,778 in 2023, making up for 22 percent of the total number of work visas issued by Britain that year.

With the implementation of the new rules, the UK government has announced that it aims to reduce net migration by around 100,000 by 2029.