Many migrants are unclear about the rights they are granted under their immigration status, while some lack confidence using newly introduced digital immigration statuses to prove their rights to housing, jobs and healthcare, new research by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford shows.
A new report, Migrants’ experiences of the UK immigration system, demonstrates that most migrants in the UK had relatively good experiences of navigating the immigration system, particularly the post-Brexit EU Settlement Scheme, where the Home Office invested significantly in making the process user-friendly. However, a minority experienced challenges, often when immigration rules and processes were complex.
Migrants’ understanding of the rights and conditions attached to their status was lower in some cases where the rules were complicated or had recently changed. For example, while almost all migrants’ with ‘non-EUSS’ statuses (typically non-EU citizens arriving on family, work, or study visas) knew their status would expire, there was considerably less certainty among people with EUSS pre-settled status.
These knowledge gaps can have serious consequences. People may breach their immigration status if they are absent from the UK for too long or may not access services they are entitled to. For example, 32% of in-work pre-settled status holders and 27% of people with Indefinite Leave to Remain did not know they were eligible for benefits.
There were also significant variations in migrants’ experience proving their rights to live and work in the UK, with older respondents more likely to have experienced issues. Among people who had experienced problems proving their status, 43% said the problem was an employer, landlord or service provider not accepting their proof of status.
Dr Ben Brindle, co-author of the report, said: “For any immigration system to work, those affected by it – both the migrants and the people they interact with, such as employers, landlords and service providers – need to know and understand the rules and comply with them.
“While many migrants understand what they can and can’t do with their immigration status, some do not, and this can have costs. Many thousands of EU migrants with the right to certain benefits in the UK are not aware of this, and may have been struggling as a result, while large numbers of people don’t know how long they can be outside the UK before their immigration status is invalid.”
The survey also showed that where there had been efforts to create user friendly systems – such as the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) – then migrants found them less stressful and easier to navigate. People with settled status, for example, were least likely to have had help with their immigration application, and they had the most knowledge of the rights attached to their status. However, those EU migrants with pre-settled status, which has gone through a number of changes to eligibility rules in recent years, were less likely to understand their rights and the limitations of the status.
Migrants whose applications were not part of the EUSS – who will typically arrive in the UK on time limited visas with more restrictions attached to them – found the UK immigration system more complicated and were more likely to need help from employers, immigration lawyers, or other experts in navigating the system.
The report highlights that people who had experienced a problem proving their status in the past were less confident they could do it in the future, with potential impacts for how they perceive the Home Office: 40% of people who had experienced an issue proving their right to live and work said they had little trust in the Home Office. Older people were also less confident in their ability to use a digital share code, making it harder for them to prove their status.
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