LONDON, Sept 28: UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Sunday signalled plans for a significant shift in the route to long-term or permanent settlement for legal migrants, involving an assessment of their social worth over and above economic contributions.
In one of her first interviews since taking charge at the UK Home Office, the South Asian heritage minister told ‘The Sun on Sunday’ newspaper that she is looking at ways to tighten the current process of indefinite leave to remain (ILR) – a route open to long-term migrants and often leading to citizenship.
The government has already indicated plans to double the current five-year timeframe before long-term UK residents can apply for ILR.
“The pace of that migration has been very, very fast. I totally understand why people have concerns about it,” Mahmood told the newspaper.
“We need legal migration, it is a good thing. We are a country that has always welcomed people who want to come and work here. But I think in addition to living and working here there is a bigger thing to do as well which is to make sure that people are making a contribution to their wider community and wider society,” she said.
“So I am looking at how to make sure that settlement in our country – long term settlement, Indefinite Leave to Remain – is linked not just to the job you are doing, the salary you get, the taxes you pay, [but] also the wider contribution you are making to our communities,” she said.
The Kashmiri-origin Labour MP drew upon her own example, pointing to her parents who migrated to Birmingham in the 1960s and 1970s to not just work but contribute.
“They settled, they made a contribution to the local community, they were volunteers, they got involved in local politics. They did more than simply work and earn a salary,” claimed Mahmood.
A change in the law to incorporate a social aspect will help migrants integrate and clearly demonstrate their positive contribution to British society, believes the MP who has represented Birmingham Ladywood since 2010.
Mahmood went on to warn that far-right groups such as Reform UK are “on the rise”, making a crackdown on immigration extremely crucial. She also reiterated a previous pledge to cut visas to countries who refuse to take their foreign offenders and illegal migrants back.
“That is absolutely a road I am very willing to go down, because I think that’s fair. I will be hard-nosed about that – when it comes to our relationships with other countries. They should take their citizens back,” said the Home Secretary, the first British Muslim woman to hold the post.
The interview comes as the Labour Party’s annual conference gets underway in Liverpool on Sunday, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer set to lay out his agenda for the next phase of government amid growing pressure on his leadership.
The issue of migration and sluggish economic growth have piled on the pressure on a Government that is now more than a year old, elected with a landslide in July 2024. (PTI)
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