By the Work Rights Centre
On Monday 14th September, a coalition of Windrush survivors and migrant health and care workers set to be affected by Shabana Mahmood’s changes to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) will warn MPs of the risks of repeating Windrush mistakes and crushing the health and care sector.
As the Government prepares to usher in the biggest restrictions to settlement rights in a generation later this autumn, the coalition of racial equity, health and care sector and migrants’ rights organisations are expected to urge Andy Burnham’s government to stop the changes to ILR, to avoid repeating the harms of Windrush.
The event is hosted by Labour MP Bell Ribeiro Addy MP in Westminster, alongside Action for Race Equality, Care England, Care Workers Charity, National Care Forum, Society of Radiographers and the Work Rights Centre.
Lived-experience speakers will highlight how the majority of the 2 million people set to be affected by the Earned Settlement changes came to the UK at its hour of need during the COVID-19 pandemic, much like the Windrush generation answered the call for health and care workers at the birth of the NHS. If the Burnham Government upholds Shabana Mahmood’s proposals, the changes are set to harm black and ethnic minorities and their families, by subjecting them to longer periods of work restrictions, exclusion from public funds, and higher visa fees.
The Government is widely expected to begin implementing the Earned Settlement changes in Autumn 2026.
Guest speakers include:
- Windrush survivors and campaigners with ties to the NHS who will speak to the intergenerational impact of the scandal and about how changes to citizenship policy can split families..
- An NHS Diagnostic Radiographer from Bedfordshire (from Nigeria) affected by the Earned Settlement proposals.
- A Care Worker who is a year away from settlement but now faces a 15-year wait under the Earned Settlement Proposals.
Shabana Mahmood’s Earned Settlement model would double the baseline qualifying period to apply for ILR from the current five years to ten years for most migrants, with a harsher 15-year baseline for care workers and other “low and medium skilled professionals”, and a 20-year baseline for refugees. While high earners could enjoy shorter routes to settlement, additional penalties would apply to people who were permitted to receive benefits, who entered on a visitor visa, or who overstayed for any reason, making the UK system one of the harshest in the Western world. The proposed changes would apply retrospectively to everyone already living in the UK, who is yet to obtain ILR.
The proposals were published in November 2025. The Government subsequently launched a public consultation, which closed in February this year. Ministers are yet to publish a response to the consultation, or publish an impact assessment of the proposals.
Speakers and the coalition of organisations behind the event urge ministers to drop the Earned Settlement plans to avoid repeating the racial injustices of Windrush, and support the public services that are critically reliant on migrant workers’ contributions.
Bell Ribeiro Addy, Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, said: “The Windrush scandal is not a historic event when its racist legacy lives on through policy proposals like Earned Settlement, which have already cast a long shadow over the NHS and the adult social care sector.
“At a time when recruitment and retention rates of health and care workers are already dwindling, tens of thousands have had the rug pulled out from under them and are now reconsidering their future in the UK. “
These proposals risk perpetuating the same harms inflicted on the Windrush generation and continuing that legacy of broken promises and institutions. The Government should drop them and commit to pursuing a fair and just immigration policy.”
Michaela Chen of the Work Rights Centre said: “This Government must hold true to its promises to uphold the lessons learned from Windrush. The evidence shows that most workers coming to the UK today are already positively contributing to our public finances, integration is already happening. Beyond the facts and figures, there are human beings who now face more years of being tied to their employers, being excluded from public funds, and being made to pay extortionate visa fees.
“We urge this Government to abandon these harmful proposals, and honour its promises to people who have already sacrificed so much to work in the UK.”
Kimberly McIntosh, Action for Race Equality, said: “’‘What’s past is prologue’ and equally the Windrush scandal is a warning. The Lessons Learned Review was clear: the Government should not make immigration policy changes without a rigorous impact assessment and should always consider the risk of harm to racialised groups lawfully in this country.
“We haven’t seen that assessment for the Earned Settlement proposals, even though they will disproportionately affect Black and Asian communities. We urge ministers to press pause, test these changes against the Windrush lessons learned recommendations, and change course if they don’t.”
Professor Martin Green of Care England said: “This Government still has a chance to keep its promise to care workers. Andy Burnham entered Downing Street having put social care at the heart of what he wants his premiership to be, and this sector has noticed. Hope in social care has been in short supply, and for the first time in years, it’s returning.
“These proposals put that hope at risk. Social care is his to fix, and ours to help him fix. But if he carries on down the path set by his predecessor, that hope will curdle into the same disillusionment care workers have felt for a decade, and we will all suffer for it.”
Jane Townson, Homecare Association, said: “Workers without a UK or EU nationality comprise 30% of the homecare workforce and play a vital role. Since 2020/21, the number of British nationals in the care workforce has fallen by around 130,000, while non-EU numbers rose sharply to fill the gap. For several years, international recruitment was not topping the homecare workforce up – it was holding it up.
“The way public bodies commission and purchase homecare, poor implementation of the care worker visa scheme, and inadequate management of supply and demand led to insufficient and fluctuating available hours per worker. Coupled with a visa system that requires full-time (37.5) hours from a single sponsor, the consequence is non-compliance and job loss.
“To address this, this Government must reform commissioning practices to improve income and security of work; enable care workers to settle; and allow a visa structure that enables care workers to move roles or work multiple roles more easily. “
Karolina Gerlich of the Care Workers’ Charity said: “Internationally recruited care workers are integral to our sector and to our society, and they are part of a skilled, professional workforce. At the Care Workers’ Charity we have consistently opposed the no dependants’ rule and we have the same concerns about the Home Office’s Earned Settlement proposals, as a fifteen year wait for stability asks more of care workers than of any other profession, at a time when the sector needs to hold on to the people it has.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has a real opportunity to change the direction of adult social care, and we are here to support that work and to make sure care workers’ voices are central to reform.”
Dean Rogers of the Society of Radiographers added: “The Society of Radiographers emphatically rejects the Government’s Earned Settlement proposals. Government has a choice. Meet your arbitrary immigration targets or fail to meet waiting list reduction targets or cancer targets. You can’t do both.
“Nine out of ten patients access a radiographer during their NHS pathway. Radiographers are the keystone to delivering Government ambitions from early diagnosis, and capacity is critical in radiotherapy and cancer treatment to areas of prevention and DEXA scans. Extra capacity to reduce waiting lists and continue to meet rising demand requires more radiographers.
“Radiography has a long-standing workforce crisis, with acute challenges to recruitment and retention. Both diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers have been on the UK’s shortage occupation list for over a decade. Patients need the UK to be able to compete globally for these highly skilled 21st century professionals. Internationally trained radiographers now make up almost a third of registered diagnostic radiographers and the number of internationally trained therapeutic registrants has increased by 60% since the pandemic.
“However, HCPC data shows the number of these registrants working here is already falling – by over 600 or 12% between May 2025 and May 2026. The Government’s hostile environment polices are already impacting. Our members are fearful for the impact on them and their families of these proposals and patients and their families need to be as well.”
Event details
Date: Monday, 14th September Time: 18:30 – 20:30
Please RSVP to media@workrightscentre.org if you would like to join us.
The Work Rights Centre is a registered charity dedicated to ending in-work poverty. More detail on how the proposed changes would work in practice can be found in our guide: Settling in the UK. Read our policy analysis of the proposals: Earned settlement proposals: An extraordinary betrayal of migrant communities.
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uk_parliament/54087412451 Copyright: House of Commons Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed
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