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Immigrant relatives face five-year wait to claim benefits
Home Office ministers regard the squeeze on family migration as key in their drive to bring annual net migration to the UK down
An immigration officer checking a passport from a passenger arriving at Terminal 1 at Heathrow Airport. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA
Family members from outside Europe who come to join close relatives settled in Britain are expected to be denied access to welfare benefits for up to five years under further plans to cut annual net migration to be detailed on Wednesday.
The immigration minister, Damian Green, is to announce new measures the government hopes will ensure that those who come to the UK through the family migration route integrate more fully into British society. They are expected to include a tougher English language test for those applying to come to Britain on a family visa.
Ministers also want to reform article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to family life and currently prevents deportation in some cases of close family members who have been living illegally in Britain.
Home Office ministers regard the squeeze on family migration as a key part of their drive to bring annual net migration to the UK down to the "tens of thousands, instead of hundreds of thousands" by the time of the next election.
So far ministers have tried to curb the flow of skilled workers from outside Europe, introduced measures to reduce the number of overseas student visas and to "break the link" between temporary migration and the right to apply to settle permanently in the UK.
But the official figures show there is precious little scope for reducing annual net migration – which was running at 242,000 in the year to September 2010 – through the family migration route. The latest figures show 48,900 family migration visas were granted in 2010, of which 40,500 were spouses who were coming for marriage, civil or other partnership purposes, or spouses-to-be. The remaining 8,400 were dependents, including elderly relatives. Most are women from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The Oxford University-based Migration Observatory estimates that changes to the family migration route are unlikely to reduce annual net migration by more than 8,000 at the most.
Cutting welfare benefits for family members from overseas is likely to have only a limited impact. Relatives already have to wait for two years before they become eligible for welfare benefits, and it is thought that the change will not affect spouses who enter on spouses' visas and choose to work and pay national insurance contributions. Ministers appear also to have drawn back from redefining the wider family eligible to come to the UK. The proposal to look at reworking the wording of "right to family life" is likely to prove difficult and open to human rights challenges.
In advance of consultation, the Migration Observatory said the changes were limited in their impact because international human rights legislation restricts the government's ability to prevent family unification.
"Family migration has been a target for successive UK governments, to the extent that it is now largely limited to the nuclear family. The majority of family migrants are spouses," says an Observatory briefing.
"The government could attempt to increase the level of financial support that needs to be proved for a family member to be brought to the UK or demand higher levels of proof that the family member will integrate, but these policies could run into legal challenges. Equally, the government could prevent fiancées from being included as family members, but even this would only deliver limited change."
Home Office ministers regard the squeeze on family migration as key in their drive to bring annual net migration to the UK down
- Alan Travis, home affairs editor
- The Guardian, Wednesday 13 July 2011
- Article history
Family members from outside Europe who come to join close relatives settled in Britain are expected to be denied access to welfare benefits for up to five years under further plans to cut annual net migration to be detailed on Wednesday.
The immigration minister, Damian Green, is to announce new measures the government hopes will ensure that those who come to the UK through the family migration route integrate more fully into British society. They are expected to include a tougher English language test for those applying to come to Britain on a family visa.
Ministers also want to reform article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to family life and currently prevents deportation in some cases of close family members who have been living illegally in Britain.
Home Office ministers regard the squeeze on family migration as a key part of their drive to bring annual net migration to the UK down to the "tens of thousands, instead of hundreds of thousands" by the time of the next election.
So far ministers have tried to curb the flow of skilled workers from outside Europe, introduced measures to reduce the number of overseas student visas and to "break the link" between temporary migration and the right to apply to settle permanently in the UK.
But the official figures show there is precious little scope for reducing annual net migration – which was running at 242,000 in the year to September 2010 – through the family migration route. The latest figures show 48,900 family migration visas were granted in 2010, of which 40,500 were spouses who were coming for marriage, civil or other partnership purposes, or spouses-to-be. The remaining 8,400 were dependents, including elderly relatives. Most are women from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The Oxford University-based Migration Observatory estimates that changes to the family migration route are unlikely to reduce annual net migration by more than 8,000 at the most.
Cutting welfare benefits for family members from overseas is likely to have only a limited impact. Relatives already have to wait for two years before they become eligible for welfare benefits, and it is thought that the change will not affect spouses who enter on spouses' visas and choose to work and pay national insurance contributions. Ministers appear also to have drawn back from redefining the wider family eligible to come to the UK. The proposal to look at reworking the wording of "right to family life" is likely to prove difficult and open to human rights challenges.
In advance of consultation, the Migration Observatory said the changes were limited in their impact because international human rights legislation restricts the government's ability to prevent family unification.
"Family migration has been a target for successive UK governments, to the extent that it is now largely limited to the nuclear family. The majority of family migrants are spouses," says an Observatory briefing.
"The government could attempt to increase the level of financial support that needs to be proved for a family member to be brought to the UK or demand higher levels of proof that the family member will integrate, but these policies could run into legal challenges. Equally, the government could prevent fiancées from being included as family members, but even this would only deliver limited change."