Settlement changes

The Home Office has today published their proposals for reform the scheme for settlement (along with some other changes to the Immigration Rules).

Senior Carers win stage in fight for right to settle

Filipino carers protest with Kanlungan.

JCWI is acting for a number of care workers – senior carers, as they are known in the various Home Office policies which relate to them. We understand that there are around 20,000 non-EEA migrant workers currently working as senior carers in the UK.

Musicians, Artists and Entertainers – welcome here?

Sokolov - the world's greatest pianist, not appearing near you (UK readers only)

There’s been a spat in the press over the last week. The treatment of visiting artists under the Points-Based System is taking its toll on the cultural reputation of the UK. Scores of prominent artists, actors and entertainers protested with a letter to the Daily Telegraph. Articles appeared in the letter’s wake in other newspapers. At Glastonbury, we were told by Wu Tang Clan that they’d been treated “like the Taliban” by the UK Border Agency.

Settlement proposals published today

Theresa May today issued UKBA’s consultation paper on employment-related settlement, together with proposed changes to tier 5 and the overseas domestic worker route.

We’ve done a very quick summary for you below though for the detail please read the paper.

Union City Views

Guest post by Dr Greg Thomson. Greg is is the National Development Manager for vulnerable and migrant workers at unison, one of the UK’s largest public sector unions.

Migration policy is too focused on the number of migrants coming to the UK. Insufficient regard is paid to how migration policy interacts with other policy objectives or how those policies impact on migration. Worryingly this preoccupation with numbers may help to demonise and scapegoat migrants at a time of rising unemployment. A more rational joined up approach is needed.

Immigration – an economic or a human rights issue?

© Copyright R Sones and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.

A lively All Party Parliamentary in Portcullis House yesterday.

Arriving a tad late thanks to an enormous queue to get through the security checks at the buildings entrance, I managed to catch the end of Dr Martin Ruhs’ address. Representing the Migration Advisory Committee, he spoke of the coming consultation on settlement and the effect of raising the skills threshold in the Points-Based System and how this could potentially have a far greater effect on migration than imposing a lower cap.

Human Rights

Once again, the debate was dominated by the question of what were the economic benefits to the UK on offer through immigration.

Starving extremist parties of oxygen…

Thought we’d have a quick look at what the far right makes of the David Cameron school of thought on engendering good race relations and effectively integrating migrants following  yesterday’s speech  in which he asserts ‘ I remember when immigration wasn’t a central political issue in our country – and I want that to be the case again.I want us to starve extremist parties of the oxygen of public anxiety they thrive on and extinguish them once and for all.’

Here’s what the BNP (in their article appearing on their website) makes of Dave’s approach. We’ll leave you to reach your own conclusions about the merits of it…

They’re tearing us apart

Cameron’s speech may well have been the first in a number designed only to rev up its local election campaign, but for all of his talk of immigration having ‘immeasurably benefitted’ the UK, the message is clear; there are too many immigrants here, and as the Sun puts it, they’re  ‘tearing us apart’. But are they really?

Too many?

Let’s put this in perspective. According to the UNDP 2010 figures, those who were born in a foriegn country only account for 10.4% of the UK’s population– this figure is actually likely to have fallen further.  Contrast this to Germany, France, Austria, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Switzerland and the US and you soon find that they all actually have higher percentages of migrants as a total

Navigating the Points-Based System

Providing up to the minute information and guidance on Immigration Rules in the UK is a challenge by any standards. With the rate of change in Immigration Law being as it is, printed material needs updating constantly.

Perhaps the best accompaniment to the brand new and shiny “Guide to the Points-Based System” recently published by JCWI, available in all good bookshops and from our own website, is the afternoon seminar that we’re organising for Wednesday 11 May.

Mushtaq (clarity of judge’s decision) Pakistan- Case note

Mushtaq (clarity of judge’s decision) Pakistan [2011] UKUT 00122 (IAC)

Background

The question for the Upper Tribunal was whether the terms in which the Immigration Judge had disposed of the Appellant’s appeal raised a jurisdictional issue relating to the Appellant’s right of appeal against the determination.