Immigration changes in the UK...

[cadetsandkings]

I'm not entirely sure whether what I have to say just now is going to be debunky enough, but I'm in a kind of shock, because of personal circumstances that may be about to radically change

Comments

[cadetsandkings]

Having trouble editing on my phone: this is a key document defending family routes.

http://www.jcwi.org.uk/sites/default/files/documets/UBLDBL_0.pdf

[nicoli_dominn]

OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD. I...does she HEAR HERSELF? How can anyone be okay with this? I know UK's economy is bust right now and everyone's broke, but this is possibly the cruelest measure the government could take against their financial problems.

[cadetsandkings]

The thing is, they've done a very deliberate thing in the way it's been framed.

This will affect British people- even (gasp) white ones- so I suspect it will be a lot less popular than the Tier 4 changes that were rammed through last year and are starting to have a clear effect on international student visa applications.

[interactiveleaf]

I'm so, so sorry for you and your family. I wish the best for you.

[cadetsandkings]

Thank you. :) Realistically,if they roll it out on a similar schedule to the Tier 4 changes recently instituted, we may be okay, but it's shit us both up a lot.

I can't imagine (or rather don't want to) the effects this will have on couples and families with other circumstances- whether it's children/dependents, or having the "wrong" background to immigrate under a proto-fascist Tory government.

[sashajwolf]

Thanks. I have friends in a multiracial marriage who are going to be fucked by this if it goes through at all quickly. Irony is, she's a Harvard grad and he's a struggling writer who's quite a bit older than she is and has spent time on benefits, so she's far more employable than he is - the long-term effect of letting her join him would almost certainly be that they'd move from being a net cost to the British public purse to being net contributors, but one of the ways the system is institutionally xenophobic (and hence in many instances racist) is that it assumes it will always be the British spouse supporting the foreign-born one - there's no way for her to prove that she could in fact support him rather than vice versa. I guess she can start looking for employers to sponsor her instead, so they'll still have more options than a lot of people, but the whole system sucks :-(

[cadetsandkings]

Yeah, this is slightly reflective of our situation, too, only we are both white and I'm American so I suppose that may work somewhat to our advantage. I am about to graduate from a UK university with an MPhil and I have a job offer which I've accepted and am starting before we apply, and my partner is graduating from the same UK university with a BA and hasn't got work yet because we agreed to go wherever the other one found work. Thankfully we're moving to a city with a comparatively functional local economy so I have reasonably high hopes for her to find work, too.

I'm just blown away by the sheer irresponsibility, racism, and classism (among other things) and the OPENNESS with which this government is all of those things. They don't even try, or need, to mask it!!

[annwfyn]

The inconsistency between this and exactly how much the benefits system thinks a couple can live on also staggers me. A friend of mine was recently denied unemployment benefit because his wife has a £5000 per year living stipend as part of her student loan and apparently that is enough for them to both live on. One wonders if Theresa May will be looking into this.