UK's Immigration Crackdown To Impact Indian Students, Workers

There was a mixed reaction as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday set out tighter new rules to clamp down on soaring immigration figures, which is set to impact Indians as one of the largest groups of student and skilled worker visa applicants to the UK.

The new rules, framed in a new Immigration White Paper, doubles the standard qualifying period for settlement status in Britain to 10 years and imposes stricter English requirements, with assessments of improvements in language skills embedded within the visa rules for applicants and their dependents.

Overseas student visas, a category dominated by China and India, will witness a tightening of the post-study Graduate Route visa offer from the current two years to 18 months.

"While we are relieved that the Graduate Route has been preserved, albeit with a reduced duration, we urge that its implementation, and that of the wider reforms, be approached with care, clarity, and collaboration," said Sanam Arora, chair of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK.

The organisation flagged concerns about the impact on Indian students, the largest users of the Graduate Route with an aim of acquiring international work experience at the conclusion of their degrees.

"Panic must not be allowed to set in among current and prospective students. Immediate clarity is needed on who is affected and how," NISAU said.

The group also called for better alignment between student and skilled worker routes, another category dominated by Indians and set to face tougher minimum salary requirements.

"We are pleased to see recognition of our long-standing calls for better alignment between immigration and skills, and we strongly support the push for greater transparency and accountability in education agent practices, for which we have laid out very clear asks," added Arora.

Almost every UK visa category is set to be impacted by the White Paper, with the Health and Social Care visa - led by Indians and other South Asian applicants - in line to be axed.

"The closure of the Health and Care Worker visa to new applicants has been framed as a response to growing exploitation, but with the numbers of visas granted to first time entrants already dwindling, it is but a distraction," said Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the UK's Work Rights Centre.

"Because of this failed visa scheme, thousands of migrant care workers already in the UK are facing destitution, and the government is yet to offer them any workable support. What they need is not more hostility and victim-blaming, but the flexibility to take their skills to the businesses that need and value them," she said.

The group also condemned as "arbitrary" the lengthier period before migrants can claim settlement rights in the UK because it would introduce unfairness into an already hostile system.

"More people will be put at risk of falling into insecure immigration status, putting them at greater risk of exploitation, and potentially even increasing the number of people with undocumented status," added Vicol.

In his Downing Street speech, Starmer said that without the tough new rules the UK risks "becoming an island of strangers".

"As this White Paper sets out, every area of the immigration system - work, family, and study - will be tightened up so we have more control.

"Skill requirements raised to degree level; English language requirements across all routes - including for dependents; the time it takes to acquire settled status extended from five years to 10; and enforcement tougher than ever because fair rules must be followed," he said, promising that migrant numbers will fall as a result of the measures.

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