london: 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 a UK 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,” she said. “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 which is to make sure that people are making a contribution to their wider community and society.”
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,”
claimed Mahmood. Agencies