In April the Home Office introduced a new settlement threshold for Tier 2 skilled workers. A Tier 2 skilled worker is a degree graduate from outside the EU or EEA. Now that the settlement threshold has come into force, each Tier 2 skilled worker must earn £35,000 after 5 years in the UK, or leave.
Tier 2 can be anything from musicians, IT workers, teachers, nurses, radiologists, journalists, scientists, copywriters, digital producers, artists, engineers, lecturers - the list goes on. Each one has worked, paid taxes, lived and made a home here in the UK.
Each Tier 2 job must be advertised in the UK for a month before a non-EU citizen can even be considered. They are forbidden from claiming benefits, must pay thousands of pounds in immigration fees, taxes, National Insurance contributions, and an extra NHS surcharge, and if they lose their job they must leave the UK within 60 days.
The new rule means that if after 5 years in the UK they do not earn £35,000, will have to leave behind their jobs, homes, friends and in some cases families.
This policy was announced in 2012 by Theresa May, along with the Impact Assessment that estimated it would mean the forced departure of 42% of nurses (now included on the Shortage Occupation List, thus saving them), 37% of migrant primary school teachers, 9% of migrant senior school teachers and 36% of migrant IT workers.
The Policy Equality Statement published by the Home Office in March 2012 also states that due to the inherent pay gap between genders, this will disproportionately affect women more than men.
Stop35k came into being in January after a successful petition by Josh Harbord was signed 114,000 times, forcing a debate of MPs in Westminster Hall. It was the first time the policy had been debated by Government. Since then we have been pressuring the Home Office, working with unions and the SNP, and making Tier 2 skilled workers aware of the danger they face (because many do not know about the threshold).