"Billionaires and politicians fan the flames of hate, but without migrant workers, Britain would grind to a halt. That's especially true when it comes to health and social care: more than a fifth of the NHS workforce is made up of migrant staff. The same proportion of care workers nationally are migrants, rising to half in London. Yet these workers, many of whom are members of Unison, have increasingly become a punchbag for politicians."
"In particular, they have become a scapegoat for this Labour government, which has sunk to a new low with its proposals on earned settlement. These changes could see low-paid public sector workers, including carers, forced to wait 15 years before being granted indefinite leave to remain, instead of the five years they were promised before they made the decision to come here. These changes would entrench and worsen the environment of fear and exploitation that defines the current system."
Migrant workers supply more than a fifth of the NHS workforce and the same proportion of care workers nationally, rising to half in London. Political rhetoric and policy proposals have increasingly targeted migrant staff, making them scapegoats. Proposed earned-settlement changes could require low-paid public sector workers, including carers, to wait 15 years for indefinite leave to remain instead of five years, intensifying fear and exploitation. Employer-tied visas and insecure contracts leave care workers vulnerable to abuse, unpaid months, excessive hours and no days off. Migrant care workers report threatening interactions with managers, emotional exhaustion and systemic, not isolated, exploitation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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