Our Policy Brief, ‘EU Immigrants in the UK: Their Future under the Points-Based System’, by BiE expert and Goldsmiths Law academic, Dr Dagmar Myslinska, brings together academics, politicians, human rights campaigners and third sector experts to offer analysis of the new immigration proposal’s social and economic impact, particularly on EU migrants.
You can read the policy brief here:
The brief cautions that:
the proposed post-Brexit points-based immigration system (PBS) is not only at odds with the Government’s ‘Global Britain’ strategy to attract the ‘brightest and best’, but will likely produce an inefficient and unstable economy due to labour shortages in several sectors (including those deemed ‘essential’ during the Covid-19 crisis), while increasing worker exploitation and pushing some immigrants into undocumented status
despite repeated Government promises that settled EU nationals would have the same rights as British nationals, even they will be considered for deportation and swept under the UK’s overarching hostile environment policy towards immigration
exclusionary, short-sighted, undemocratic, and not evidence-based, the PBS will lead to a decline in the UK’s standing as a global player and as a defender of human rights
Noting EU movers’ long-standing fiscal and cultural contributions to the UK, the brief urges the Government to draft a comprehensive list of shortage occupations to include key workers and select positions classified as ‘low-skill’ and to continue welcoming EU students. There is still time to approach the post-Brexit policy overhaul as an opportunity to improve the UK’s immigration system, with not only economic but also human rights concerns in mind.
Contributors to the report include Dr Michaela Benson, Reader in Sociology at Goldsmiths; Caitlin Boswell from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants; civil rights campaigner and Secretary General of the citizens’ movement New Europeans, Roger Casale; founder of Britain in Europe, Professor Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos; Fizza Qureshi, Chief Executive Officer of Migrants’ Rights Network; and former Labour MEP Julie Ward.
For media inquiries email law@gold.ac.uk