Up to 50,000 nurses could quit UK over immigration plans, survey suggests | Nursing

Up to 50,000 nurses could leave the UK due to government immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, a study has found.

Keir Starmer has pledged to curb net migration, considering forcing migrants to wait up to 10 years before applying to settle in the UK instead of automatically gaining settled status after five years.

The measures, which also include plans to raise skills requirements for foreign workers to degree level and raise English language standards required for all visa types, including dependents, are seen as an attempt to combat the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. A public consultation on these plans is expected soon, sources said.

Nursing leaders told the Guardian the plans were “immoral” and treated highly skilled migrants like “political footballs”. They said a mass exodus of nurses would threaten patient safety and derail government efforts to reduce waiting times.

Under these proposals, migrant workers in all sectors of the economy would be affected. However, the most serious impact would be on health services, which are already buckling under the pressure of growing demand for care and shortages of staff.

An investigation by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), seen by the Guardian, found the plans have caused deep distress among overseas NHS and social care staff.

There are more than 200,000 overseas trained nurses, around 25% of the UK’s total workforce of 794,000 people. The government’s proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain (ILR) have raised alarms, with many now considering leaving the UK permanently, the survey suggests.

Nearly one in ten nurses working in the UK could be affected by the proposed changes. According to government figures, 76,876 people have been granted visas since 2021 and would currently be eligible for permanent resident status after five years. However, plans to double this period to a decade put their future at risk.

In the RCN survey of more than 5,000 migrant nurses, 60% of those without ILR said the upheaval was “very likely” to affect their plans to stay in the UK. The findings suggest more than 46,000 people could leave the UK permanently.

Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the RCN, said: “These proposals are not only immoral, they would be dangerous for our patients. No minister who cares about the success of our health and social care system would pursue the extension of the ILR eligibility period.”

She called for the plans to be scrapped and said otherwise they risk worsening the NHS workforce crisis, threatening patient safety and derailing efforts to reduce waiting times for treatment. “As the Government fails to grow the national nursing workforce, it risks pushing tens of thousands of highly skilled nurses out of the UK,” she said.

The proposals also constitute a “betrayal” of migrant nurses, Ranger said, as many of those without ILRs came to the UK to support the response before and after the Covid-19 crisis and now face uncertainty.

“Many of those who will soon apply for ILR came to the UK during the pandemic, at great personal sacrifice. This is no way to reward them and amounts to betrayal. Our international colleagues deserve to have a clear vision of their future, not to be used as political footballs by politicians and unable to access state support despite working in public services and paying taxes.”

Without ILR, migrant nurses cannot move easily between jobs, with their visas tying them to their employers, which Ranger says has led to exploitation in the welfare system.

The proposals would also leave them unable to access state support such as child benefit and disability support for a decade, despite paying taxes. “If the government continues to show healthcare workers that they are not welcome here, they should not be surprised when they decide to leave. »

According to the survey, these proposals caused deep dismay among migrant nurses. The study found that 53% of respondents were “extremely concerned” about their financial security, 52% were extremely concerned about the impact on their family, and 49% were extremely concerned about the impact on their career.

These plans could reduce the pool of foreign workers willing to come to the UK in the future, the survey suggests. Only 11% of respondents said they would still have migrated if the path to settlement had taken 10 years.

The RCN is also calling on the Government to reduce the application fee for ILR, which remains at £3,029 per person, despite an estimated processing cost of £523. In 2003 the fee was just £155.

A government spokesperson said: “We are grateful to our frontline health workers overseas, who are showing compassion, providing high quality care and strengthening our health services, but net migration must decrease.

“As the Home Secretary has indicated, under our proposed new settlement model, individuals will have the option to reduce the reference period for settlement and citizenship based on their contributions to the UK economy and society. We will launch the consultation shortly and encourage health and care workers to take part when it launches.”