The impact of changes to immigration rules on migrant workers who are already in the UK

For the last 10 years, the Home Office issued around 20,000 work permits to migrants coming from non-European countries to work as senior care workers (senior care workers are carers for the elderly) in the health and care sectors. The majority of them entered the UK on work permits that then allowed them to apply for indefinite leave to remain after a certain period.

‘My dreams were shattered when the government changed their policies without taking us into consideration’

But in 2007, the Home Office started refusing work permit extensions submitted by employers for their overseas senior care workers. Of those carers whose first applications were expiring and in need of renewal in 2007, 75 per cent of the applications for renewal were refused.

The drastic changes of immigration rules have left most migrant care workers in vulnerable situation. A lot of them were deported, became unemployed or ended up in limbo. As a result of this unfair policy changes, migrant communities campaigned and lobbied the government. They were able to negotiate what is called transitional arrangements. However, many migrant workers were still not able to meet the criteria and were forced to face harsh conditions.

Amongst the conditions introduced in the transitional measures for the renewal of work permits was that senior care workers should have a job that required a qualification of at least NVQ Level 3 and where they were paid at least £7.02. The work permit rule changes appear to have introduced an unequal pay system into workplaces, with different levels of pay for British and EU nationality workers versus overseas migrant workers doing the same job (e.g. senior care worker) with the same employer. Since, the minimum £7.02 pay level only applies to the overseas migrant workers, making them more expensive to employ.

According to the Home Office, between August 2004 and February 2008, out of the 10,500 work permits requiring renewal, more than one third were rejected – that is over 3,500 work permits were not renewed. The Home Office also said that another 8,308 senior carers were in need of further permission from February 2008 until 2012. This adds further to the number of workers who will potentially lose their jobs and their right to remain in the UK.

Adapting to the new conditions

Many senior care workers tried their best to satisfy the new requirements for a work permit extension by moving to other employers who will pay the £7.02 per hour. Some of them have managed to change employers before their work permits and visa expired. Some of those who arrived before December 2003 have not managed to take advantage of the concession because by the time the transitional measures were announced in January 2008, they had already been dismissed from work by their original work permit employer in 2006. Many others were not able to change employer in time and had gaps in their visa before they were able to find a new employer willing to pay the required salary.

The six-month window, in which migrants were allowed to change employers, as provided in the Home Office concession was not long enough. Others who managed to apply for an extension of their visas, within the six months concession period but got the decisions on their applications only after six months or more, started to accumulate longer gaps in their years of continuous working in their visa. Others who managed to re-apply within the six months, but were refused for one reason or another, and had to apply again, accumulated gaps of even longer than six months in their visas.

Many senior care workers, with gaps in their visas within their five years of stay in the UK, have tried to apply for indefinite leave to remain. However, they have been refused by the Home Office and were told that they should fill the gaps in their visas and re-apply when these gaps have been completed. Then again, there are some who until now have still not managed to get new employers who are willing to pay them £7.02 and who are therefore, now here as undocumented migrants.

When migrants lose their visas, this does not automatically result in all these workers leaving the country. It almost certainly translates into a significant number of workers staying in the UK as undocumented migrants. They became undocumented not by choice but because of misguided policies and mismanaged immigration.

The case of Harold, Jasmine and Grace

What happened to Harold, Jasmine and Grace is a good example to show how these specific occurrences in immigration have affected their personal life and their families.

They came to work as senior carers in UK in 2005. Harold, Jasmine and Grace are qualified nurses. They accumulated enough experiences and knowledge and were respected of their profession back home. Unfortunately, due to the growing economic and political crises in the Philippines, the salary that they get is inadequate to sustain basic needs of their families.

This is the main reason why they need to work abroad such as United Kingdom. It may seem possible to say that it is their choice to work abroad but looking at it thoroughly, this is not the case. The fact is – they have no choice but to leave and look for alternative ways to survive and even this could mean leaving your children and loved ones.

Harold, Jasmine and Grace had overwhelming negative effects to their employment and immigration status because of the rule changes in 2007. The three workers arrived in the UK to work as Senior Carers in August 2005 for a big care home. They were given a two year work permit visa, that expired in August 2007. They had to pay very high fees to employment agencies to put them in work and were paid the minimum wage. This has become a huge racket by unscrupulous recruitment agencies.

When their work permits were about to expire, their employer tried to apply for work permit extension. However, their applications were refused on the basis that the job description did not meet the NVQ3 qualification required for senior carer’s post. The 3 workers were terminated from their employment in August 2007.

From September 2007, they travelled around, moving from one house to another staying in their friends’ house. They have experienced extreme difficulties during this period, without job and without money. In London, they were forced to share a small room somewhere in North London with four people living in it already. Harold's wife was pregnant at that time. But they had to look for a job in order to survive. At first they ended up washing dishes in a restaurant and because they had no proper documents to show, they were paid £3 an hour. They felt vulnerable since they knew that they were working without permit or protection. They have decided to stay in Harold's car for the time being until they have earned enough money to rent somewhere to stay. They have asked friends for them to clean and bathe themselves.

They also felt exploited by their employers who knew that they were undocumented and made them work very hard for less than the minimum wage. Harold and his wife felt very worried about their future and the future of their then unborn child. Harold's wife was not able to attend any ante natal care because of their visa problem.

In January 2008, when the government announced the different concessions to senior care workers, they tried to look for employers who are willing to pay the £7.02 per hour which is required for extending their work permit. In February 2008, the three workers found employers who were willing to pay them £7.02 per hour. 

The employers applied for their work permits on February 13, 2008. They paid £ 500 each as an initial payment for their work permit applications. The Home Office gave a decision in April 2008 refusing the work permit applications on the basis that the workers have ran out of time from the 6 months period of gap allowed by the concession (the period when they did not have visa is 18 August 2007 to 13 February 2008). The employers appealed against the decision and on 2^nd of May 2008, the Home Office responded by confirming their decision in April refusing their application. The three workers were forced to get a solicitor to represent their case to the Home Office. They had to wait for almost one year before the decision from the Home Office came.

The three workers finally got their work permit and Further Leave to Remain (FLR) in February 2009 valid up to 2014, with the assistance of a solicitor. They paid £2,060 each, inclusive of the £500 that they have paid initially to the solicitors plus the Home Office fees of £350 each. During this period of more than one year waiting for their visa, they could not work and had to borrow money from friends to pay the solicitors, the Home Office, and for their living expenses.

They also had to explain to their families in the Philippines that they were unable to send them money. Their families also suffered poverty during this period. Their children stopped studying and they had to borrow money to make ends meet. They had to apply for a re-scheduling of their debt payments which meant increase in the interest rate that they have to pay.

The four senior carers are just some of those thousands of migrant care workers in UK, who share similar sufferings and struggles. Their everyday suffering is what we can call assorted issues – from personal, employment, immigration, housing and education - being de-skilled, discriminated and penalised.