New rules in the UK punish the migrant care workers who help keep the country alive
Hatred and cruelty are increasingly being spewed towards migrants in the UK, but the truth is, the country cannot function without them. More than one in five NHS staff are migrants. The same is true across social care. And in London, migrants make up nearly half the workforce.
Yet instead of being valued, migrant care workers are being scapegoated by politicians.
The most recent attack on the rights and protections for migrant workers is by the Labour government’s proposed changes to “earned settlement” rules. The reforms would force many low-paid migrant workers to wait 15 years before qualifying for indefinite leave to remain, instead of the five years they were promised when they moved to the UK.
A system that breeds exploitation
For years, migrant care workers have been tied to employer-sponsored visas—a system that creates a dangerous power imbalance and leaves workers vulnerable to exploitation. Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, condemns the policy in an article written for The Guardian, stating:
These changes would entrench and worsen the environment of fear and exploitation that defines the current system. This is nothing less than a full-frontal attack on migrant workers and a wrecking ball for public services from a government that should be standing up for both.
One migrant care worker from India explained that the threats were constant. “Every conversation with the managers feels threatening, and often ends with the word ‘visa’.”
Another worker described the psychological toll:
We cannot continue to work under these kinds of pressures. It is emotionally draining and mentally exhausting. You lose yourself. Fear becomes your shadow.
Politicians often dismiss these abuses as the work of a few “bad apple” employers. But insecure work, zero-hour contracts, illegal underpayment, and exploitative practices are endemic across the care sector. When a worker’s right to remain in the country depends entirely on their employer, the threat of deportation becomes a weapon of control.
As Egan states bluntly:
I don’t say it lightly, but the sponsorship system has effectively made modern slavery a structural feature of our care system.