It’s wrong to demand migrants prove their worth to the UK

Once again, the government has failed to respond to the real issues facing people in this country. 

Instead of prioritising meaningful change to address rising costs and inequality, struggling public services and a crumbling NHS, housing shortages and a growing climate emergency, it has chosen to blame migrants – in another cynical attempt to distract people from its own failures, and to appeal to right-wing voters.

Just days after Keir Starmer rightly labelled Reform’s dangerous and unrealistic proposal to end indefinite leave to remain ‘racist’ and ‘immoral’, his government then rushed out proposals that I see as just the same.

Yesterday, in her Labour conference speech, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a series of new and restrictive conditions for migrants entering the country. 

These include strict English language tests and forced volunteering for people to ‘earn’ the ability to be in Britain. If they don’t pass these, they will be denied permission to settle in the UK, potentially even if they’ve been here for ten years or more. 

This is just another example of Labour trying to make the ‘good migrant’ trope into government policy, implying that anyone who doesn’t meet these restrictive conditions is ‘bad’ or undeserving. 

In our work at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, we see first hand the consequences of politicians seeking to pit people against each other, to divide and rule. 

In her speech, Mahmood made the sinister warning that ‘without control, we simply do not have the conditions in which our country can be open, tolerant and generous’ – claiming that ‘she will be a tough Labour Home Secretary.’

In yet another frightening sign for me that this government is just an echo of Reform and the rest of the far-right, the Home Secretary seems to be suggesting that her administration could be intolerant, ungenerous and closed to migrants.  

For many, these conditions will be impossible to satisfy, and will make life even harder for people to settle and move forward with their lives. 

They are likely to systematically exclude the most vulnerable from society, including single parents, carers and those rebuilding their lives after displacement from global conflict and upheaval.

For example, it is deeply unfair to those who already work exhausting full-time jobs to expect them to volunteer – aka work for free – alongside it. 

People who move here are already constantly told and expected to ‘prove’ themselves in some way. But treating people with basic humanity and dignity is how we all deserve to be treated, not something that needs to be earned.  

It’s not just for those born in a certain place, who speak English perfectly, or who contribute the most by volunteering. If your friend or neighbour fell ill and needed support, would you think they only deserved support based on whatever value they provide to you, or to society? 

Treating people based on their perceived value, as if they are commodities, is deeply dehumanising, and an extremely slippery slope. 

In any case, this attempt to force people to ‘contribute’ is fundamentally just posturing, as we know from our experience that people who have come to this country already want to be a part of their communities, and do so much for them, all around Britain.  

A practice manager at a GP surgery, just a short walk from a former hotel now asylum accommodation housing more than 400 people seeking sanctuary, spoke to us (on condition of anonymity to protect the wellbeing of staff and patients). 

Over the past year, five residents from the hotel have offered to volunteer at their practice, and three of them, after gaining refugee status, are now employed as staff members. 

The practice manager spoke about how they wanted to ‘sing the praises of these people’. But even if they aren’t volunteering, those seeking Indefinite Leave to Remain are still deserve our respect. 

There is no ‘good migrant’ or ‘bad’ – only human beings, who deserve to be treated as such.

The government, by pandering to Reform and other parts of the British hard right, seem to be trying to divide people with their rhetoric and misinformation, creating a ‘them and us’ narrative against people who move here.  

These proposals from Labour are only going to make things worse in our opinion. But as our GP contact explained, their new colleagues are ‘just like any section of the population’ with people trying to ‘get into the way of life’ and ‘embrace it’.  

They faced the same issues as everyone else in the UK: ‘the problem of trying to work full time and get some accommodation that they can’t afford’.  

We believe that these proposals from Labour are cruel and unnecessary and will only make things worse. It is our duty to call out this government’s divisive plans and reject them.

 It is often conveniently forgotten or ignored that as a formal colonial empire and participant in recent conflicts, Britain is responsible for a lot the historic and current instability that has forced people to move in the first place. 

We should be proud to offer people the chance to build their lives here, and in doing so, try to address some of these historic wrongs. 

These repeated attempts to target and scapegoat migrants do nothing to fix the real issues facing people in this country.  

A Labour home secretary trying to talk tough is not going to solve those issues, no matter how hard she attempts to outdo Reform.

Calling Farage’s policies racist and trying to match them the next day is wrong, and we have to make that clear. 

All of us must demand and build a society based on humanity, dignity, and community, not one based on conditional acceptance – or worse – conditional humanity.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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