Point-based immigration increases poverty risks for migrant families

Under the UK’s points-based immigration system, skilled oversees workers with families face a higher risk of poverty and lower net incomes than UK workers in the same professions, a new study has found.

Researchers from the ESRC Centre for Population Change at the University of Southampton warn that as well as creating social and financial disadvantages for immigrants, the system could make the UK less attractive for overseas workers who could fill the country’s skills gap.

Analysing a range of different incomes and household types, the results show that migrant families with one full-time and one part-time worker and a small child are at much higher risk of poverty than UK families, even if their joint income is far above the median national wage.

In one example, a migrant family aged 25+ with joint earnings worth £40,319 receives £207 less per week in social benefits than a UK family on the same wages. As a result, the UK family lives above the poverty line while the migrant family lives below it.

While the UK was an EU member state, EU workers in the UK had the same rights to social benefits as UK workers, while the rights of other overseas workers were more restricted.

Traute Meyer, Professor of Social Policy, and Paul Bridgen, Associate Professor of Social Policy at the University of Southampton, who led the study, said: ‘The UK wants to be open for skilled workers after Brexit, and the government has set a wage threshold which workers and their families must cross to be allowed to come. However, our research shows that because new policies withhold child-related social rights for new migrants, the UK is only a poverty-proof destination for single migrants or migrant families earning significantly above this government threshold.’

Professor Meyer continued: ‘Some will feel that the differences are fair, based on the argument that adult workers just coming to the country should not be entitled to extra public support. However, others may be concerned the UK is losing out on talent because international workers might prefer to go to other EU countries where their families are entitled to support.

‘In addition, the fairness of health care charges on migrant health workers was publicly questioned during the COVID-19 pandemic, given they were risking their lives for UK patients but had to pay a healthcare surcharge to be looked after by the NHS themselves. We show that to be excluded from measures supporting parents has far greater consequences for migrants’ incomes. This might be of concern to those members of the public who believed that the healthcare surcharge was unfair.’

In related news, the story of gentrification in the UK has run parallel with racial tensions and migrant displacement, writes Raoul Walawalker, features writer for the Immigration Advice Service, an organisation of OISC accredited immigration lawyers.

Photo by Liv Bruce