Illegal migrants face a 20 to 30 year wait before they can claim benefits, under bombshell new plans. They will have to wait up to 30 years to get settlement rights, Shabana Mahmood has announced. Low-paid workers, such as the 616,00 people and their dependents who came on health and social care visas in the so-called Boris Wave, will be forced to wait 15-years.
The changes will apply to almost two million migrants who arrived in the UK from 2021. Migrants who have gamed the system will also face penalties, the Government has announced.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the proposed changes will not apply to those granted settled status.
She said: “We propose these changes apply to everyone in the country today who has not yet received indefinite leave to remain, though we are seeking views on whether there should be some transitional arrangements available.
“May I make one thing absolutely clear though: we will not change the rules for those with settled status today. These are people who have been in our country for years, even decades. They have families here, wives, husbands, children.
“They have worked in our hospitals, taught in our schools and have been contributing to our society for years. Fairness is the most fundamental of British values. We made a promise when we gave them settlement and we do not break our promises.”
She added: “For those who believe that migration is part of modern Britain’s story, and should always continue to be, we must prove that it can still work.
“That those who come here contribute, play their part and enrich our national life. While each will always retain something of who they were and where they came from, they become a part of the greatest multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracy in the world.”
And foreign nationals applying for indefinite leave to remain must have no criminal record, speak English to A-level standards and have no debt, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.
Ms Mahmood said current forecasts show 1.6 million are due to settle in the UK between 2026 and 2030, with a peak of 450,000 in 2028.
She said: “To settle in this country forever is not a right, but a privilege, and it must be earned. Today, that is not the case. Settlement or indefinite leave to remain comes almost automatically after five years’ residence in this country.
“At that point, a migrant gains access to many of the rights of a British citizen, including to benefits.”
Foreign nationals reliant on benefits face a 20-year wait for settlement – quadruple the current period and the longest in Europe.
In contrast, doctors and nurses working in the NHS will be able to settle after five years. To support economic growth, the brightest and best of international talent could have settlement fast-tracked – with high earners and entrepreneurs able to stay after just three years.
The new rules will apply to anyone yet to be granted settlement rights.
Ms Mahmood said she did not believe in communities assimilating, and cohesion had been achieved over generations because communities have integrated.
She added that current divisions could lead to danger for migrants and their families, including hers.
Ms Mahmood said high levels of migration since 2021, in the so-called “Boris-wave”, had led to 2.6 million people moving to the country.
She spoke of her own experience as the daughter of two migrants from Kashmir. She said: “I, and so many others like me, are patriots. Mine is a love of a country that is forever changing, whilst something essential about us always endures.
“It is a patriotism that finds room for those who trace their roots back many generations and those who, like me, do not. But I worry that this broad patriotism is, for some, narrowing, and that a vision of a greater Britain is giving way of that of a littler England, as anger turns to hate.
“Some will choose to scorn this analysis. They would rather we simply wished it away, but those who look like me do not have that luxury, our lives, and those of our families, are more dangerous in a country that turns inwards. So we have no choice but to ask, what is the cause of our division, and how might this country be united?”
Ms Mahmood added: “Migration will always be a vital part of Britain’s story. But the scale of arrivals in recent years has been unprecedented.
“To settle in this country forever is not a right, but a privilege. And it must be earned. I am replacing a broken immigration system with one that prioritises contribution, integration and respect for the British sense of fair play.”
