Migrants. To many in the UK, the word conjures up visions of unwashed, tattered scraps from the table of humanity, their worldly possessions in a small cloth bag and a scroungy look in their vacant eyes, sucking up taxpayers' blood and sweat. That a migrant (especially a non-white one) can be polished and educated, rich and successful, compatible with and even interested in local culture, seems to be a bizarre notion for the majority of Brits.
Three themes dominate the papers, day in and day out: (radical) Muslims as cultural misfits, hordes of East Europeans flooding in via EU enlargement (the job-stealing 'Polish Plumber' is the new boogeyman), and asylum seekers sponging state benefits. Sure, each of these categories has some merit, and this island nation is historically xenophobic by nature.
But in all this hysteria, the political parties in charge enact misguided kneejerk populist measures, and the one migrant group who actually does nothing but benefit the economy gets the stick.
Work Permit (WP) and Highly Skilled Migrant Program (HSMP) visa holders [I'm one of the latter] are, I would hazard, some of the best and brightest young people working in the UK, across nationalities. The WP is an employer-sponsored 5-year work visa (sort of like the US H1-B) while HSMP is a points based system that rewards youth, higher education and work experience, and above-average earning power. You needed 65 points to be eligible for the scheme, which would give you a one-year employer-independent work visa, extendable for a further three years. Both WPs and HSMPs could, after completing four years in the UK, apply for ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain) - the equivalent of permanent residency. After a minimum of one year on the ILR, an application for British citizenship could be made.
All this WAS the case. This year, the Home Office introduced two major changes. The first was pushing up the timeframe for ILR (and therefore eventual citizenship) from 4 years to 5. The second, more fundamental change, was a sudden and complete revision of the HSMP system last week, with some points categories scrapped, new ones introduced and more gradient points allocations. All fine and dandy (objectively speaking it's definitely an improvement on the older system) - but it will apply not only to fresh applications but also to extensions for those already here.
Now it doesn't directly affect me for now, cos I already got my extension till 2010 a couple of months ago. But thousands of others have been caught in the lurch. After investing much or all of their life savings to come here, sometimes with familes, find work and set up a new life in the UK - the application form even asks you to pledge that you will 'make the UK your main home' - they go to renew the initial one-year visa and presto chango, they suddenly don't meet the new criteria. What now for them? Shut shop and fuck off? Is this the reassurance that the government of your newly adopted country gives you - at any point they can change rules and tell you to piss off?
I feel especially sorry for those who got caught in between the two rule changes - say, someone who would have qualified for ILR in a few weeks' time suddenly has to wait another year, and deciding to knuckle down and wait it out, then gets slammed with another rule change, which is effectively a deportation order for those who can't make the new bar.
There is already talk of legal action on immigration boards, but I don't know what will come of it, because at the end of the day, all said and done, this is Britain and the British are free to do what they like to foreigners in their country. Indeed, even when known radicals like Abu Hamza are given state benefits of £30k a year and preach hatred at the mosques every week, even when 50,000-plus asylum seekers and their dependents are given that precious piece of paper every year, the government is free to throw as many obstacles and hurdles as they can at their most skilled, hard-working, law-abiding group of residents. Freedom and democracy, yeah!