The UK’s 2025 Immigration White Paper – A Simple Explainer

The UK’s 2025 Immigration White Paper – A Simple Explainer

May 14, 2025 | Blog, I am Checking My Facts, News

The UK’s 2025 Immigration White Paper – What It Means

As a charity that supports migrant communities, we want to help make sense of the UK’s latest immigration changes. The government’s 2025 White Paper, titled Restoring Control over the Immigration System, sets out major reforms that will affect workers, students, families, and people seeking safety. We’ve reviewed the full document so we can break it down in simple terms — and speak out for fairness and dignity.

What’s This All About?

The government says it wants to reduce net migration and rebuild public trust. To do this, they are tightening immigration rules — especially around work, study, and family visas. They say the system will now focus on people with higher qualifications, stronger English skills, and clear evidence of integration.

But behind the headlines, there are real human consequences. Here’s what you need to know.

What Are the Key Changes?

1. Higher Bar for Work Visas

  • Jobs now need to be at degree level or above (RQF Level 6) — a big jump from previous rules that accepted A-Levels or equivalent.

  • Salary thresholds are rising, making it harder for many people to qualify.

  • Lower-paid roles must appear on a Temporary Shortage List, and employers must show they’re also training local staff.

2. End of Overseas Recruitment for Care Workers

  • The adult social care route will close to new applicants from abroad.

  • Only doctors, nurses, and similar healthcare professionals will still qualify.

  • This risks deepening the staffing crisis in care homes and removes a lifeline for many migrants.

3. Shorter Visas for International Students

  • The Graduate Visa will shrink from 2–3 years to just 18 months.

  • New rules make it harder for international students to stay and work unless they quickly find a high-skilled job.

  • There are also tougher checks on universities and stricter marketing rules for student recruitment.

4. Tougher Family Rules

  • English language tests will be stricter for adult dependents.

  • Income requirements will rise, and new limits on public support are being considered.

  • There will also be changes to how the Home Office handles exceptional cases involving families’ rights to stay together.

5. Longer Wait for Settlement

  • Most people will now need to live in the UK for 10 years (not 5) to qualify for permanent status (Indefinite Leave to Remain), with a few exceptions.

  • People can “earn” faster settlement through high salaries, community contributions, or public service — turning settlement into a reward system.

6. Stricter Rules for Asylum and Borders

  • The government plans to make it harder for people already on visas to claim asylum unless their home country situation has changed.

  • More powers will be given to refuse claims and remove people more quickly.

  • Digital border controls (eVisas) will track people’s movements in real time.

7. Focus on English Language

  • People will need to show progress in English at different stages — starting at A1, moving to A2, and reaching B2 before settlement.

  • This applies to both workers and dependents.

Why We’re Concerned

While the government says this is about control and fairness, many of these changes could have harmful effects:

  • Hard-working care workers are being shut out, despite filling vital roles.

  • Families may be separated by income barriers or strict rules.

  • Students and graduates will have less time to build a future here.

  • Longer waits for settlement mean more uncertainty and insecurity for many people who already contribute so much.

We fear this system may treat people not as neighbors and colleagues, but as economic units. A fair society welcomes people for who they are — not just for how much they earn.

What We’re Calling For

We believe in a kind and just immigration system that:

  • Respects family unity and the right to build a life together.

  • Recognises the value of all work, not just the highest-paid jobs.

  • Supports integration through support and education, not punishment.

  • Offers real, achievable pathways to permanent status and belonging.

These changes are complicated and worrying but we are here to continue to fight for a system that sees the humanity in every human being.

With solidarity and care,
Your friends at Samphire

“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” ~ Oscar Wilde.

“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” ~ Oscar Wilde.

Jan 6, 2023 | Blog, I am Checking My Facts, News

Food for thought as we head into 2023 and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish
between fact and fake news.
Barely into the new year and already the headlines are filled with large, scary sounding
figures as we are told record numbers of people crossed the channel last year, and grim
predictions are made about migration for the year ahead.
Such pre-emptive pessimism seems to set the tone for another year of misinformation and
thinly veiled racist rhetoric from the mainstream media, as we stray ever further from our
supposedly free press.
True enough, migration is an emotive issue and with the threat of poverty looming over many
of us as prices continue to rise, it is little surprise that such sensationalist media coverage
leads many to blame the country’s current state almost entirely on migration alone.
But the widespread anger felt by the nation is less a result of migration itself, and more the
prolonged mismanagement of an already broken immigration system. With fear and hatred
being insidiously spread amongst communities through wilful misrepresentation of the
situation and the use of provocative and inaccurate language by politicians and the
mainstream media.
The concerns of citizens go far deeper than the manufactured fear of a few innocent,
desperate people seeking safety on our shores. With public services in crisis, the migration
situation is just a convenient scapegoat for what are actually the bleak results of 12 years
(and counting) of Tory austerity, core budget cuts and restrictions on local councils.
The ‘record’ numbers reported to have crossed the channel in 2022 refers only to small boat
crossings. The ‘record’ began in 2018, small boat channel crossings were a rarity until 2019,
so such a dramatic statement highlights nothing more than a change in the way people are
arriving.


The horrific amounts of money reportedly being spent on hotel accommodation and asylum
support is another popular bone of contention at the moment. During the cost of living crisis
this really begs the question – is the government’s commitment to the ‘hostile environment’
strategy really in the public interest?
The reason we are obliged to provide accommodation and support to people arriving here is
because we do not give people the right to support themselves. The argument for allowing
people to work while their asylum claim is being processed has never been stronger. Not
only would the asylum support bill go down drastically, but we would see over £100 Million a
year going back into the economy through tax revenues and National Insurance
contributions, not to mention the much needed skilled labour during a national skills
shortage.

But you won’t find headlines highlighting these facts because using the socio-economic
crisis to fuel division and fear in communities is obviously far more valuable to Suella
Braverman et al. than it would be to actually attempt to solve the issues.
The truth is looking back over the decades we can see peaks in these sensationalist
headlines, when migration is dragged into the spotlight to be blamed for one government
failing of another, or to gain support, and with these peaks we see a change in the public
opinion towards migration.
To get an idea of just how influential media coverage has been, note a YouGov poll held
weeks before the Brexit Referendum, when anti-migrant press coverage was at a high, 56%
of the country thought ‘immigration and asylum’ were the most important issues facing
Britain. Soon after the vote that dropped to 46%.
The press continued to tail off their media coverage and by 2019 the average number of
people who believed immigration was the key issue facing Britain fell to just 20%. The
migration situation had not changed in any big way, but as the media coverage drops off so
too does the public interest.
So it is with that, that I encourage everyone to question everything this year, don’t allow
yourselves to be swayed by doom-posting media drama. Choose compassion, choose
humanity, choose love.