What the future holds for immigration

By 8th May 2015immigration

If the mantra of the 1997 general election, when Labour came to office, was that things can only get better, the manta of this general election is that, for anyone affected by immigration law in this country, things can only get worse.  A lot worse, probably.

It is likely that the Human Rights Act, which is based on the European Convention on Human Rights and which guarantees, amongst other things, the right to respect for an individual’s family and private life, will be repealed during this Parliament, as the Conservative Party manifesto commits the party to replacing the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights.  The contents of this Bill of Rights are as yet unknown.

The commitment to bring annual net migration down to the ‘tens of thousands’ remains, and a tightening of the Immigration Rules that apply to students and to skilled workers is likely.  Closer monitoring of migrants and ‘non-suspensive appeals’ – that is, appeals that do not give you the right to remain in the UK while your case is going through the appeal process – are also likely to be brought in.

There are stated intentions to limit access to benefits and impose English language and income requirements on EEA nationals, though all this of course is not permitted under EEA law, and would mean considerable negotiations with other EEA member states before this could be implemented. Meanwhile a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union is promised by the end of 2017.