Immigration, the NHS and Landlords

By: A.C.

The Tory Conference this year does seem to have thrown up contradictory statements and promises of swingeing and radical legislation. Unfortunately, Theresa May the Home Secretary does not seem to like people who come from foreign lands and she is an old style Tory who seems anti–immigration to her core. The Guardian is quoted here as saying

“Theresa May, who 13 years ago had warned that many voters thought the Conservatives were the “nasty party”, but who now pledged to clamp down on the rights of asylum seekers, and renewed her commitment to cut net migration to below 100,000 in terms so harsh that she was widely condemned even by her allies.”

“She is on shaky ground when she claims that mass migration drags down pay and prospects for those who work in low-skilled jobs. According to the Office for National Statistics, there are 3 million non-UK-born workers employed in Britain, but there are also 28 million UK-born workers; the numbers have grown in parallel, while the proportion of economically inactive people looking for work has remained unchanged. And while the net benefit that migrants make to the economy overall is small, it is still above the OECD average.”

No doubt Mrs May and her Party members when they get ill or disabled, will manage to get private health care staffed by wholly UK-born nurses who do not have to try and earn more than £ 35,000 and do not have the threat of being repatriated to their home country for not earning enough within six years.  According to the Guardian “The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the change, due to come into effect in April next year, will cause chaos in the health service. Under the new rules, non-EU workers who are earning less than £35,000 after six years in the UK will be deported”.

Mrs May’s next attack on immigration is to force landlords to check that who they let their property to is legally allowed to be in the country. So if your name is even vaguely foreign, then I doubt that a landlord will let their property no matter how legal your right is to be in the country. Free movement to find work or change jobs, to different parts of the country in order to improve one’s employment grade and therefore earnings, will probably be hampered as Landlords simply refuse to let to anyone whose name sounds or looks foreign.

However, Russian Oligarchs or other corrupt foreign millionaires with dubious fortunes gained by unknown means, will still be laundering their cash in London Property thus forcing up the property prices.

These billionaires are of course welcomed by the Government, but I doubt that any of them would have the capacity or compassion to work in the NHS and have to stay in over-priced sub–standard accommodation.

I have been trying to envisage what would happen if one of the folk in the “ Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme” ( VPR) transported to the UK from the Lebanon or Jordan refugee camps, and if they are vulnerable or disabled surely that would mean housing in a converted or adapted house? The BBC state:

“People brought to Britain under VPR have been granted Humanitarian Protection, a status normally used for people who “don’t qualify for asylum” but would be at “real risk of suffering serious harm” in their home country.

They can stay for five years, have the right to work and access public funds. After five years they can apply to settle in the UK.

Mr Cameron told MPs many of those to be given sanctuary would be children, describing it as the “modern equivalent of the Kinder transport” during World War Two. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees would be responsible for identifying those most in need, with all those considered for resettlement to be subject to security checks”.

He/she will have a hard time moving for work. Then of course after five years they can apply for residence, but what happens if they cannot get earnings up to £35,000 in the next six years? That would probably be followed by IDS’ removal of benefits or public funds, and sanctioning if they cannot attend a JobCentre interview. So that would seem like deportation.

Apart from those anomalies, what happens if the Leave campaign manage to convince the public to pull the UK out of Europe? Will that mean that EU staff in the NHS who are now Non–EU, will be deported because they are not earning enough?

The whole contradictory mess is so confusing that 300 lawyers, barristers and former Judges wrote an open letter criticising the Government on their Immigration/Asylum Policy.

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