The Tories like to be described as a party that holds family-values and holds together the family but the number of non-UK nationals granted the right to live with their relatives in the UK has plummeted in the past decade, breaking up and separating family members.
The number of children, partners and dependant relatives able to remain permanently in the UK through a “grant of settlement” has declined by 73 per cent since 2006. Family members being granted entry clearance visas, which they must obtain in order to move to Britain to apply for settlement, have also decreased by 46 per cent.
While applicants had an 83 per cent chance of being granted a visa in 2006, they had a 72 per cent chance last year.
The figures reflect an ongoing clampdown on immigration by the Conservatives through the introduction of more restrictive requirements for people wanting to join British family members, which they said has seen families “torn apart”. Experts said the fall in applications can be explained by policies introduced by the Government to deter people from applying, in a bid to reduce immigration numbers. New measures include a rise in the income threshold for the British relative and an increase in application fees, leading to a more bureaucratic process now in place.
A UK citizen must earn more than £18,600 before they can sponsor a non-European spouse or partner to join them and the system doesn’t take savings and spouses’ potential earnings into account. “This partially affects people in low paid jobs such as social care. There have been many heartbreaking stories of families who have been separated as a result,” explained Jill Rutter, director of strategy at the thinktank British Future, which works on immigration and integration,
Also a policy change in 2012, which saw the period one had to live in the UK before applying for a permanent residency increase from two years to five years, will also have contributed to the steep decline in grants of settlement, which has plummeted by 77 per cent since the change took place.
The number of visas granted to children of UK citizens has dropped by 38 per cent in the past decade, with the percentage of successful applications falling from 69 per cent to 47 per cent, the figures show.
Visas granted for partners of British nationals have fallen by 45 per cent since 2006, with the success rate down from 86 per cent to 76 per cent.
Entry clearance visas granted to “other” family members, which refers to those who have dependent relatives in the UK who require their support, has decreased even more dramatically, by 57 per cent, indicating that far less foreigners are now able to move to the UK as carers for vulnerable family members.
Nazek Ramadan, director of Migrant Voice, said the decline had been caused by “damaging” new policies introduced by the Government as part of a wider set of “hostile environment” practices, which she said was making family life a “target” in the bid to meet migration objectives.
The number of children, partners and dependant relatives able to remain permanently in the UK through a “grant of settlement” has declined by 73 per cent since 2006. Family members being granted entry clearance visas, which they must obtain in order to move to Britain to apply for settlement, have also decreased by 46 per cent.
While applicants had an 83 per cent chance of being granted a visa in 2006, they had a 72 per cent chance last year.
The figures reflect an ongoing clampdown on immigration by the Conservatives through the introduction of more restrictive requirements for people wanting to join British family members, which they said has seen families “torn apart”. Experts said the fall in applications can be explained by policies introduced by the Government to deter people from applying, in a bid to reduce immigration numbers. New measures include a rise in the income threshold for the British relative and an increase in application fees, leading to a more bureaucratic process now in place.
A UK citizen must earn more than £18,600 before they can sponsor a non-European spouse or partner to join them and the system doesn’t take savings and spouses’ potential earnings into account. “This partially affects people in low paid jobs such as social care. There have been many heartbreaking stories of families who have been separated as a result,” explained Jill Rutter, director of strategy at the thinktank British Future, which works on immigration and integration,
Also a policy change in 2012, which saw the period one had to live in the UK before applying for a permanent residency increase from two years to five years, will also have contributed to the steep decline in grants of settlement, which has plummeted by 77 per cent since the change took place.
The number of visas granted to children of UK citizens has dropped by 38 per cent in the past decade, with the percentage of successful applications falling from 69 per cent to 47 per cent, the figures show.
Visas granted for partners of British nationals have fallen by 45 per cent since 2006, with the success rate down from 86 per cent to 76 per cent.
Entry clearance visas granted to “other” family members, which refers to those who have dependent relatives in the UK who require their support, has decreased even more dramatically, by 57 per cent, indicating that far less foreigners are now able to move to the UK as carers for vulnerable family members.
Nazek Ramadan, director of Migrant Voice, said the decline had been caused by “damaging” new policies introduced by the Government as part of a wider set of “hostile environment” practices, which she said was making family life a “target” in the bid to meet migration objectives.
“The sharp drop-off in grants of settlement and entry clearance visas appears to indicate yet another challenge to those trying to build a normal family life in Britain,” Ms Ramadan told The Independent. “In the last five years we have seen damaging new policies such as the income threshold, which prevents the lowest-earning half of British citizens from starting a life at home with a foreign partner – and currently affects 15,000 children. And we have also seen the rise of a wider set of ‘hostile environment’ practices aimed at making life difficult for newcomers, which provides a context to these latest figures. Family life has been the first target in this Government’s pursuit of an arbitrary, unachievable migration cap.”
Chai Patel, legal and policy director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said, “This Government is hellbent on making the UK hostile to immigrants and have created one of the harshest family migration systems amongst developed countries. For integration and communities to succeed, parents should not be separated from children, nor should partners who are in love be forced to live in different countries. We need an immigration system that respects family life.”
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