Briefing 3: Settlement

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KANLUNGAN Alliance of Filipino Organisations SENIOR CARE WORKERS Briefing 3: Settlement 1. The UK will need skilled migrant care workers for the foreseeable future 2. Skilled migrant care workers are hardworking families 3. Settlement is one of the main reasons skilled care workers come to Britain 4. It’s unfair to change immigration rules for people already settled who’ve planned their lives 5. Salary levels should not determine who settles

description

Settlement is very difficult to obtain by skilled migrant care workers who provides elderly care in the UK. This briefing discusses this case.

Transcript of Briefing 3: Settlement

KANLUNGANAlliance of Filipino Organisations

seNiOr cAre wOrKers

Briefing 3: Settlement

1. The UK will need skilled migrant care workers for the foreseeable future2. Skilled migrant care workers are hardworking families 3. settlement is one of the main reasons skilled care workers come to Britain4. It’s unfair to change immigration rules for people already settled who’ve planned their lives5. Salary levels should not determine who settles

BrIefIng 3: SeTTlemenT

senior care workers

Senior care workers are defined as care workers ‘...with the additional duties of front line supervision and monitoring of care workers and care assistants ... [They] will often be in charge of a shift of workers1...’ generally this position requires at least two years experience and qualifications equivalent to nVQ level 3. In practice, most migrant senior care workers are much more qualified and experienced than that. Of the 11 people we interviewed, they told us that before they came to the UK:

� three were qualified nurses or midwives with degrees, one with 20 years experience, one with 14.

� three had physiotherapy degrees, one with 20 years experience. � two had many years experience of working in hospitals.

The work often involves long and anti-social hours.

We work 8 hours a day with only 30 minutes break. This is always the case. Sometimes we do overtime, but that is not paid just to catch up with the work undone. (1)

Wage levels for Senior Care Workers are very low. In 2007, the Home Office said it would refuse visas to people paid less than £7.02 per hour employers refuse to pay more, saying that they could not afford it because the pay rate is partly determined by what local authorities will pay for care placements.

why do senior care workers come to the UK?

Clearly, wages are not the attraction. Once living costs are taken into account, there are few opportunities to save, especially since many workers have family in the UK to support and also family in their home countries. People also have to pay agency fees, fares and bonds, with an average total cost of £2000 – £5000. As english speakers, workers from the Philippines have options in the UK, US, Canada, new Zealand, Australia: all countries with aging populations and increasing care needs. Agencies, encouraged by the Philippine government which looks to remittances to support the economy, recruit to the UK.

But Senior Care Workers tend to be people in middle life, because of their levels of experience and qualification, and so often have both children and elderly parents. The attraction of the UK is the possibility of settlement which is seen as offsetting the low wages, poor conditions and difficulties. Senior Care Workers on limited leave work visas are bound by these working conditions for their first five years in the UK as they are tied to one employer or sector. But once they get settled status, they can move jobs, find better employers and wages and move out of tied accommodation. many Senior Care Workers move to the UK with partners or children, sometimes selling homes to fund their costs, expecting that they will be able to make the UK their home. They are willing to take this risk and move for the chance to settle in the UK.

Before I came here, settlement was an option that I have greatly taken into consideration prior to deciding working in the UK. The settlement route was part of our plans as a family apart from knowing that the work I will do is something that is needed in this country. I am a highly qualified nurse both in the Philippines and the UAe and had more than 20 years working with patients and vulnerable adults. I chose the UK because I expected that I can settle here to develop a career where I can provide a competitive care service for long term. I could have chosen ..Canada to work if settlement in the UK was not an option. (12)

why is settlement important?

Settlement was the key to many Senior Care Workers’ decision to come to the UK. They were not looking for a trip abroad or a gap year: they were hard working families deciding to do a difficult, low paid job, in return for which they expected to be allowed to live here with their families. Some are still waiting to find out if they will get settled status eventually. Considering the low wages, risks associated with moving to the UK and difficult work, skilled Senior Care Workers are unlikely to come to the UK for 5 years only. furthermore, those who came before the changes are now having the rules changed under them. The greatest incentive for coming to the UK to undertake this kind of work is being taken away after they have committed to coming to the UK and have worked for many years.

Because this is our life, we just want to live and work, we had nothing left to do but that but it was taken away. I think I deserve to be a citizen by all of what happens it is the only way it can be repaid because I was not only a good citizen, I help the people here, I do not commit crime, I speak the language, I am a taxpayer and never asked money from the government, this should be more than enough for me to be given citizenship. (3)

If workers in skilled care jobs are not able to settle in the UK, they will look to other countries with more favourable rules, which have similar needs for carers for their aging population. Canada, for example, has a live-In Caregiver Programme, which recruits largely from the Philippines, and offers permanent residence for workers and their families after two years of authorised work, with no conditions about salary or savings2. By 2007, almost 7,000 live-in caregivers had permanent residence3.

Already, social care workers and nurses from the Philippines constitute one the largest groups of migrant carers in Ireland, the US and Canada4. new Zealand also offers residence to migrant workers recruited to shortage occupations (including nursing and physiotherapy) after two years’ work. In 2011, the OeCD recommended that countries like the UK improve the recruitment of care workers, including migrants, and increase the retention of those successfully recruited, given the global shortages in the care workforce5.

what has gone wrong?

In 2006 there were about 11,000 migrant Senior Care Workers, the largest group of whom were from the Philippines6. most expected to work in the UK for five years, renewing their visas as necessary, and then apply for settled status which was what the rules said then. The UK Border Agency changed the rules in 2006, querying the skills level needed for many jobs for which people had visas as Senior Care Workers, and setting a minimum wage level of £7.02 an hour. many who had to renew their visas were refused. After a lot of protests, in 2007 the government backed down on the skills levels but not on the wage level. Workers were told that if they were paid less, they could find another employer, but often had very little time to do this before they had to renew their visas. This caused chaos for workers and their families, who had to move across the country, wait in the UK with no wages coming in, or even return to the Philippines to wait for a new visa.

my family [two kids and husband] were here when these problems happened. When I had the problems, we had to move to just one single room and we lost most of our possessions. We were helped by friends but it was difficult since my two children were still going to school and we have to save up all our money for food and essentials. (5)

my wife was 6 months pregnant that time so we can’t go back to Philippines as no airline would accept us. I wanted to get new employer and settle my £5,000 loan …….It took me almost one year to get a new work permit and visa. It’s been years for me and my family of suffering and fear. (9)

In 2011, the rules changed again. People who had worked, entirely legally, for five years on visas issued before the rules changed are being told that they cannot get settled status because they are paid too little. But it is a catch 22: they cannot change their jobs until they get settled status. And employers say that they cannot pay more because local and health authorities are cutting costs and they cannot pay wage increases.

what is happening now?

The government has issued a consultation on settlement. In it they say ‘We want to end the notion that coming to the UK to work will result in permanent stay for all those who want it7.

They propose that skilled workers who come to the UK will only be allowed in on a temporary basis. Some may be allowed to stay after five years: those earning over £150,000 for example. Others will be expected to leave after five years.

The population in the UK is ageing and there will be an increasing number of older people in need of care. Who will look after our elders, our sick and our disabled if our care workers go?

I hope they can see the importance of our contribution to their country by taking care and serving their countrymen and in return they will help us in our present situation as they are always going on about fair treatment. I hope it will be fair for the both parties, even though we came from foreign country. (4)

Thankfully I am now a British citizen but there are a lot of things that I had to go through and it was really tough. They make it tough for migrants in this country in spite of not giving us proper appreciation of what we contribute to the society. (11)

what can we do?

� Tell the Government how important settlement is to migrant care workers

� Tell the Government how important migrant care workers are to our elderly and disabled people

� campaign to oppose the refusal of settlement to migrant care workers.

1 In the Skills for Care (SfC) national minimum Dataset for Social Care in england 2 Information from Canadian government website http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/

caregiver 3 Spencer, Sarah et al The role of migrant Care Workers in Ageing Societies:

report on research findings in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and the United States International Organisation for migration geneva 2010.

4 Ibid 5 Help Wanted? Providing and Paying for long-Term Care OeCD 20116 estimate from UnISOn see press release http://www.unison.org.uk/

asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=10717 Consultation on settlement June 2011

Acknowledgements

This report and the briefings accompanying it were written by Sue lukes.

special Thanks

Kanlungan management Committee, Staff and Volunteers:Benny Clutario, Cielo Tilan, Carolyn Panday, Dr. fernando Santiago Jr. (+), elaine Tilan, evelyn Bolano, emma Bibal, estela nalden, Hapsa Pelicano, Jamima fagta, Jilyn ganaden, Jose Caparino Jr., lyra del rosario, mark Dearn, Pina manuel, rafael Joseph maramag, ricardo gacayan, Shanthi Sivakumaran, Simon luke Aquino and Susan Cueva.

All Senior Care Workers and supporters who participated in this report:Asuncion labaniego, gloria Umali, gundelina ramirez, Janis ramos, Jenny labaria, Joseph Tejada, Joseph Carmelo Baxa, mr. Patiak, nerissa Siongco, Sady evangelista, Susana Tambadoc and Vicenta Ornopia.

Organisations: � migrants rights network � Immigration law Practitioners’ Association � Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants � UnISOn � Praxis � Bahay Kubo Housing Association � migrante UK � lingap filipino Association � Philippine Theatre UK

Kanlungan and our research

Kanlungan is a registered charity consisting of five filipino community organisations working closely together for the welfare and interests of the filipino community in Britain. We advise and support filipinos and have been working with hundreds of care workers affected by many of the problems in the industry and immigration system. We work closely with the trade union movement, lawyers and some employers.

One of the groups worst affected by the recent changes in immigration policy has been Senior Care Workers. Consequently, Kanlungan has been working closely with Senior Care Workers, supporting and advising them on their rights with respect to these changes. We now have some grant funding to support this work, and have used it to seek legal advice and to commission research. The research was based on detailed interviews with Senior Care Workers affected by the important changes in immigration practices since 2007, and we are using the outcome of the research for these briefings: this is the third briefing. extracts from the interviews are identified by numbers.

KAnlUngAnc/o Bahay Kubo Housing AssociationCaxton House, 129 St. John’s Waylondon n19 3rQ

T: 020 7263 8992 e: [email protected]: www.kanlungan.org.uk

Charity registration no. 1077224

BrIefIng 3: SeTTlemenT

This report was supported and funded by

Trust for london Barrow Cadbury fund Joseph rowntree Charitable Trust

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